FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

FROM    THE    PAINTING    BY   CARLO   VANLOO. 


THE  YOUTH 


OF 


FREDERICK  THE  GREAT 


BY 

ERNEST   LAVISSE 

PROFESSOR    AT    THE    SORBONNE,    PARIS 


TRANSLATED  FROM  THE  FRENCH 

BY 

MARY    BUSHNELL    COLEMAN 


CHICAGO 
S.    C.    GRIGGS    AND    COMPANY 

1892 


Copyright,  1891 
By    MARY    BUSHNELL    COLEMAN 


3$733-b 


R.   R.  DONNELLEY  &  SONS  CO.,  CHICAGO 


THIS  TRANSLATION 

IS  AFFECTIONATELY  DEDICATED  TO  THE  MEMORY 

OF  MY  FRIEND  AND  INSPIRER, 

MRS.    CHAPMAN    COLEMAN, 

THE  SUCCESSFUL  TRANSLATOR 

OF  MUHLBACH'S 

HISTORICAL  NOVELS  OF  "FREDERICK  THE  GREAT." 


awToaa 


AUTHOR'S   PREFACE. 


Nature,  who  has  prepared  certain  countries  and 
constructed  birthplaces  for  nations,  did  not  foresee 
Prussia.  In  fact,  there  does  not  exist  a  geograph- 
ical Prussia  either  as  a  race  or  region:  Germany  is 
the  daughter  of  nature,  but  Prussia  was  made  v  by 
men. 

In  1713,  a  man  began  to  reign  at  Berlin,  who  was 
born  a  military  monomaniac.  It  pleased  this  sov- 
ereign of  eighteen  hundred  thousand  poor  subjects 
to  have  as  strong  an  army  as  that  of  Austria,  that 
is  to  say,  of  an  empire  of  more  than  twenty  million 
people.  This  passion  regulated  the  thoughts,  habits, 
and  life  of  Frederick  AVilliam  I.  As  it  was  a  morbid 
and  restricted  mania,  it  was  sufficient  unto  itself, 
and  required  no  exterior  manifestations.  The  King- 
Sergeant  loved  his  army  as  Harpagon  his  treasure; 
his  eyes  delighted  at  the  sight  of  his  battalions  as 
the  miser's  hands  at  the  fluent  contact  of  the  gold 
pieces.  Harpagon  took  his  gold  from  the  coffer  only 
to  contemplate  it;  when  the  regiments  of  Frederick 
William  left  their  garrisons  it  was  for  display  at 
grand  reviews;  they  returned  to  them  immediately. 


VI  PREFACE. 

T}iis  king  had,  it  is  true,  good  reasons  for  not  ven- 
turing his  military  capital  in  enterprises;  besides, 
he  had  a  religion,  the  fear  of  God  and  the  fear  of 
the  devil.  The  desire  of  gaining  a  few  "  shovelfuls 
of  sand"  caused  him  to  commit  sins  of  cupidity, 
but  his  Christian  conscience  and  his  scruples  as  an 
honest  man  would  have  recoiled  if  an 'occasion  for 
some  bold  infamy  had  presented   itself. 

This  king  died  in  1740.  Another  succeeded  him, 
at  the  same  time  alike  and  yet  unlike;1 — alike  in 
methods  of  governing,  in  making  and  saving  his 
gold  pieces,  in  regulating  the  increase  of  his  army 
by  that  of  his  finances,  and  by  his  sedulous  attention 
to  details;  —  unlike  in  ability  for  decisive  action,  in 
power  and  genius  manifested  in  action;  in  con- 
tempt for  all  human  and  Divine  law,  and  in  the 
serenity  of  this  contempt. 

In  1740,  a  conjunction  was  formed  of  a  power, — 
the  Prussian  army, —  of  a  resolute  man  to  make  use 
of  it, —  Frederick  II. —  and  of  an  unforeseen  event 
which  opened  the  way  for  this  power  and  this  man: 
this  opening  was  the  Austrian  succession.  It  de- 
termined the  whole  destiny  of  Prussia. 

In  place  of  Frederick  William  I.,  who  created  the 
power,  put  a  king  like  Frederick  I.,  an  en j oyer  of  a 
royal  dignity,  that  was  expended  in  magnificent 
fetes  and  ostentatious  ceremonies:  you  suppress 
Prussia  probably;  assuredly  you  prorogue  it.  Place, 
after  the  King-Sergeant,  an  honest,   mediocre  man, 


PREFACE.  VI] 

or,  simply,  an  honest  man:  Maria  Theresa  inherits 
the  paternal  succession  guaranteed  by  a  number  of 
clear  and  authentic  treaties,  and  Prussia  does  not 
rise  from  third  to  first  in  rank.  The  whole  course 
of  history  is  changed. 

Frederick  William  I.  and  Frederick  II.  collabor- 
ated equally  in  forming  the  character  and  physi- 
ognomy of  Prussia.  The  father  was  an  autocrat  by 
Divine  right,  a  priest  as  well  as  a  soldier  and  a 
king,  a  man  of  order  and  of  prayer.  He  bent  the 
bodies  and  souls  of  his  subjects;  he  moulded  them, 
body,  and  soul,  into  an  attitude,  into  a  uniform. 
The  son  was  one  of  the  most  liberal-minded  men  1/ 
that  ever  existed,  a  soldier  also,  but.  at  the  same  time 
a  man  of  letters ;  an  autocrat,  but  a  philosopher. 
Military  and  intellectual  Prussia  —  the  Berlin  of 
barracks  and  schools,  where  the  university  neigh- 
bors the  arsenal,  where  the  statue  of  Humboldt 
faces  that  of  Blucher  —  emanated  from  Frederick 
William,  the  King-Sergeant,  and  from  Frederick  the 
Great,  the  King-Philosopher ;  and  barracks,  univer- 
sity, arsenal,  statues  of  philosophers  and  marshals 
sprang  up  around  and  in  the  shadow  of  the  king's 
palace. 

A  singular  power,  made  up  of  liberty  in  thought 
and  discipline  in  action,  where  the  boldest  concep- 
tions are  given  life  within  line,  and  remain  there. 

The  principal  interest  of  the  history  of  Frederick's 
youth,  is  that  it  points  out  to   us  the  struggle  of 


Vlll  PREFACE. 

contrary  elements,  the  fusion  of  which  was  to  con- 
stitute Prussia.  From  the  time  that  Frederick 
reached  manhood  until  the  day,  when  forced  into 
an  unwilling  marriage,  he  became  master  of  his  own 
household, — "far  from  Jupiter  and  his  thunder," — 
the  father  and  son  were  in  continual  strife.  They 
were  conscious  only  of  their  dissimilarities.  Except 
in  rare  moments  when  they  caught  a  glimpse  of  the 
justice  they  owed  each  to  the  other,  they  hated  and 
despised  each  other.  The  son  desired  the  death  of 
his  father;  the  father  promised  a  munificent  reward 
to  the  messenger  who  would  bring  him  news  of  the 
death  of  his  son.  Neither  knew  the  value  of  the 
other,  nor  that  they  worked,  each  in  his  own  way, 
the  one  as  necessary  as  the  other,  to  "  decide,"  as 
Frederick  would  say,  the  uncertainty  of  the  birth 
of  Prussia. 

I  have  related  in  detail  the  history  of  Frederick's 
youth  up  to  the  time  of  his  marriage,  which  eman- 
cipated him.2  I  have  been  induced  to  do  this  by 
reading  preceding  works  upon  this  subject,3  but 
principally  through  the  study  of  valuable  docu- 
ments, letters  and  orders  of  the  king,  letters  of  the 
prince,  official  or  secret  correspondence,  memoirs, 
authentic  accounts  by  eye  witnesses  of  the  chief 
events,  and  official  reports  of  the  courts,  that  were 
permitted  to  relate  day  by  day,  and,  during  the  most 
trying  moments,  hour  by  hour,  the  incidents  of  this 
strife  between  father  and  son. 


PREFACE.  IX 

I  have,  also,  studied  from  other  documents,  the 
places  where  the  drama  was  enacted.  I  imagined  I 
could  see  it  revived  in  the  Palace  of  Berlin,  at  the 
Wusterhausen,  and  at  the  foot  of  the  rampart  at 
Custrin. 

In  the  great  mass  of  detail,  perhaps  I  may  have 
erred  in  some  few  instances;  but  my  conscience 
tells  me  that  I  have  searched  for  the  truth,  and  I 
hope  I  have  found  it  in  the  essential  points,  that 
is  to  say,  in  the  character  of  the  two  principal  per- 
sonages, and  the  motives  of  their  conduct.  I  have 
taken  great  pleasure  in  my  task.  At  every  turn, 
I  met  with  words,  phrases,  gestures,  actions,  that 
we  can  hear  or  see  repeated  at  the  present  time. 
I  have  observed,  in  passing,  that  such  an  order  of 
William  II.,  addressed  to  the  officers  of  his  army, 
such  a  speech  pronounced  by  him  at  Konigsberg, 
and  which  excited  so  much  provocation  in  Russia, 
were  mere  reminiscences  of  Frederick  William,  but 
there  must  be  left  a  part  for  the  reader  to  do  in 
the  work  which  was  written  for  him. 

In  seeing  revealed  the  minds  and  morals  of  the 
two  sovereigns  by  a  hundred  anecdotes, —  sovereigns 
who  have  made  the  little  Kingdom  of  Prussia  such 
a  great  military  State,  to-day  master  of  Germany 
and  a  prevailing  power  in  Europe,  —  perhaps, 
reader,  you  may  wonder  if  these  minds  and  morals, 
of  which  the  effects  have  developed  in  concentric 
circles,   will   rule  enlarged    Prussia,    Germany,    and 


X  PREFACE. 

Europe  for  a  long  period  of  time.  The  first  circle 
formed  in  the  water  by  a  stone  that  is  thrown  into 
it,  has  the  clearness  of  a  relief;  the  relief  dimin- 
ishes as  the  circles  multiply  and  enlarge;  at  a  little 
distance  farther  on  the  water  retains  its  natural 
tranquillity.  In  history  all  power  has  its  limits 
more  or  less  contracted;  the  strongest  is  often  of 
the  shortest  duration,  and  the  most  exposed  —  when 
it  passes  beyond  the  bounds  of  its  primitive  sphere 
—  to  the  reactions  which  destroy  it. 

Eenest  Lavisse. 


CONTENTS. 


Preface, v 

Bibliography, xiii 

CHAPTER  I. 
CHILDHOOD. 

Birth.    Grandfather.    Accession  of  the  Father,     -  1 
The  Governess;  the  First  Masters;  the  Preceptor 

and  the  Sub-preceptor, 7 

Instruction  to  the  Preceptors,    -        -        -        -  20 

The  Germs  of  Conflict  Between  Father  and  Son,  33 

CHAPTER  II. 
THE  FATHER  OF  FREDERICK  THE  GREAT. 
The  Ideas  and  Modes  of  Government  of  Frederick 

William, -        -  45 

The  King's  Government, 61 

The  Creation  of  Prussian  Power,       -        -        -        -  67 

The  Inaction  of  the  King  of  Prussia,           -        -  75 

The  Individuality  of  Frederick  William,       -        -  95 

The  Pleasures  of  Frederick  William,          -        -  101 

Acts  of  Violence,  Folly  and  Despotism,           -        -  113 

Frederick  William's  Religion,         ....  120 

CHAPTER  III. 

THE  CONFLICT  BETWEEN  FATHER  AND  SON. 

First  Symptoms  and  Causes  of  the  Conflict,  -        -  128 

The  Mother  of  Frederick, 135 

The  Eldest  Sister,          -------  142 

Mother,  Daughter  and  Son,     -        -        -         -        "  1^6 

The  Projects  of  Marriage  for  Frederick  and  Wil- 

HELMINA, 151 

The~King  and  the  Projects  of  Marriage,    -        -  158 

xi 


Xll  CONTENTS. 

The  Prince's  Party, 162 

The  Preceptor's  Farewell.    Forbidden  Pleasures,  170 

The  Autumn  of  1728  at  Wusterhausen,  -        -  177 

The  Resumption  of  the  Marriage  Negotiations,     -  186 

The  Mission  of  Sir  Charles  Hotham,  -        -  199 

CHAPTER  IV. 
THE  ATTEMPT  AT  ESCAPE  AND  THE  PUNISHMENT. 

The  Flight  and  the  Arrest, 221 

The  Examination, 236 

The  Judgment, -        -        -  260 

The  Justice  of  the  King,  -  272 

The  Execution  of  Katte,       ------  277 

The  Pardon  of  the  Prince, 288 

CHAPTER  V. 
THE  SECOND  EDUCATION  OF  THE  CROWN  PRINCE, 

The  First  Six  Months  in   the  Chamber  of  Adminis- 
tration,       -  304 

The  Royal  Visit, 314 

The  New  Regime  of  Life, 318 

The  Marriage  of  Wilhelmina,         ....  332 

The  Crown  Prince  at  the  Marriage  of  His  Sister,  346 

The  Last  Days  at  Custrin, 353 

CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  MARRIAGE  OF  FREDERICK  THE  GREAT. 

The  Intentions  of  Austria,      -  369 

The  Declaration  of  the  King, 375 

The  Double  Play  of  the  Crown  Prince,       -        -  382 

From  the  Betrothal  to  the  Marriage,      -        -        -  388 

The  Anglo-Austrian  Intrigue,         ....  400 

The  Marriage,  - 406 

CHAPTER  VII. 

Conclusion, 421 

Notes,     -  427 


BIBLIOGRAPHY. 


DOCUMENTS  CONSULTED. 

Political  correspondence  in  the  archives  of  the  Minister  of 
Foreign  Affairs  of  France,  documents  upon  Prussia,  years  from 
1725  to  1733,  vols.  LXXXIII.  to  XCVI. 

Beitrag  zur  Lebensgeschichte  Friedrichs  des  Grossen,  wel- 
cher  einen  merkivurdigen  Brief  wechsel  ilber  den  ehemaligen 
Aufenthalt  des  getachten  Konigs  zu  Custrin  enthdlt,  Berlin, 
1788. 

Brief e  Friedrich  des  Orossen  und  seiner  erlauchter  Bruder 
Prinzen  August  Wilhelm  und  Heinrich  von  Preussen  aus  der 
Zeit  von  1121  bis  1162  an  die  Gebruder  Friedrieh  Wilhelm  und 
Friedrich  Ludivig,  Felix  von  Borcke,  Potsdam.  1881.4 

JJrkundenbuch  zu  der  Lebensgeschichte  Friedrich  Wilhelms 
I.,  second  part  of  vol.  II.  of  Dr.  Friedrich  Forster's  book,  Fried- 
rich Wilhelms  I.  Konig  v.  Preussen,  3  vols.,  Potsdam,  1734-35. 
The  third  volume  of  this  work  comprises  the  Nachtrdge  Zum 
ersten  Bande,  and  the  Nachtrdge  zum  zweiten  Bande,  in  which 
is  found  a  great  number  of  the  documents  referred  to  in  this 
book. 

Works  of  Frederick  the  Great,  30  vols.,  Berlin,  1846-1857, 
vols.  XVI.  to  XXVII. 

JJrkundenbuch  zu  der  Lebensgeschicte  Friedrichs  des  Gros- 
sen,  by  J.  D.  E.  Preuss,  five  parts,  Berlin,  1832-4.  In  the  sup- 
plement to  the  first  part,  which  is  inserted  in  the  second,  is 
found  the  Briefweschel  Friedrichs  des  Grossen  mit  seinem 
Vater  (1730-1734). 

Memoirs  of  Frederica  Sophia  Wilhelmina,  Margravine  of 
Baireuth,  3d  edition,  Paris.5 


XIV  BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

Vollstdndige  Protocolle  des  Kopenicker  Kreigsgerichts 
ilber  Kronprinz  Friedrichs,  Lieutenant  von  Katte,  von  Kait, 
u.  s.  w.,  Berlin,  1861. 

AUTHORS  CONSULTED. 

Bratuscheck,  Die  Erziehung  Friedrichs  des  Grossen,  Ber- 
lin, 1885. 

Due  de  Broglie,  Frederick  IT.,  and  Maria  Theresa,  2  vols., 
Paris,  1883. 

Carlyle,  History  of  Frederick  II.  of  Prussia,  6  vol,  London, 
1858-65,  German  translation  of  Neuberg  and  Althaus,  6  vol., 
Berlin,  1858-69. 

Cramer,  Zur  Geschichte  Friedrich  Wilhehns  I.  und  Fried- 
richs II.,  2d  edition,  Leipsic,  1833. 

Droysen  (J.  G.),  Friedrich  Wilhelm,  Konig  von  Preussen, 
2  vol.,  Leipsic,  1869;  in  the  Geschichte  der  preussisschen  Politik, 
by  the  same  author. 

Fassmann,  Leben  und  Thaten  des  Allerdurchlauchtigsten 
und  Grossmdchtigsten  Konigs  von  Preussen  Friederici-Wil- 
helmi,  Hamburg  and  Breslau,  1735. 

Forster  (cited  above  when  mentioning  the  Urkunden- 
buch  zu  der  Lebensgeschichte  Fr.  W.  I.) 

Fontane,  the  second  part  of  the  Wanderungen  durch  die 
Mark  Brandenburg  (das  Oderland  Barnim-Lebus)  4th  edition, 
Berlin,  1889 

Koser,  Friedrich  der  Grosse  als  Kronprinz,  Stuttgart,  1886. 

Kramer,  Neue  Bietrdge  zur  Geschichte  August  Herman 
Francke's,  Halle,  1875. 

Pierson,  Konig  Friedrich  Wilhelm  I.  in  Den  Denkwur- 
digkeiten  der  Markgrdfin  von  Baireuth,  Halle,  1890. 

Preuss,  Friedrichs  des  Grossen  Jugend  und  Thronbesteig- 
ung,  Berlin,  1840.  and  Friedrich  der  Grosse  mit  seinen  Ver- 
wantden  und  Freunden,  Berlin,  1836. 

Ranke,  Zwolf  Biicher  preussischer  Geschichte,  5  vols.,  2d 
edition,  Leipsic,  1878-79,  vols.  XXV-XXIX  of  the  Sdmmtliche, 
Werke. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY.  XV 

Raumer,  Prenssen  von  Jahre  1730  bis  1740,  Friederichs  II. 
Jugendzeit,  to  the  vol.  I.  of  3d  part,  Leipsic,  1839,  from  the  Bei- 
trdge  zur  neueren  Geschichte,  ans  dem  britischen  und  franzo- 
sischen  Reichsarchive. 

Waddington  (Albert),  The  Acquisition  of  the  Royal  Crown 
of  Prussia  by  the  Hohenzollerns,  Paris,  1888. 

Weber  (Von)  Von  berliner  Hofe  water  Konig  Friedrich 
Wilhelm  I.  in  Aus  vier,  Jahrhunderten,  Mittheilungen  aus 
dem  Haupt-Staats  Archive  zu  Dresden,  Neue  Folge,  2  vol. 
Leipsic,  1861. 


THE  YOUTH 


FREDERICK  THE   GREAT 


CHAPTER   I. 

CHILDHOOD BIRTH THE    GRANDFATHER ACCESSION  OF 

THE    FATHER. 

XpREDERICK  THE  GREAT  was  born  in  Berlin, 
-J-  January  24,  1712,  to  Frederick  William,  Crown 
Prince  of  Prussia,  and  Sophia  Dorothea  of  Hanover, 
during  the  reign  of  his  grandfather,  Frederick,  the 
first  Hohenzollern  who  wore  the  royal  crown.  *  His 
maternal  grandfather,  George,  Elector  of  Hanover, 
was  the  heir  of  Queen  Anne  of  England,  whom  he 
succeeded  in  1714. 

At  the  time  of  Frederick's  birth,  the  Houses  of 
Brandenburg  and  Hanover  were  in  the  enjoyment  of 
great  prosperity  ;  to  the  one  it  had  come,  by  the  other 
it  was  with  pleasure  anticipated.  During  the  eleven 
years  that  he  was  king,  Frederick  I.  was  unwearied  in 
admiring  and  celebrating  his  royal  dignity.  He  arose 
very  early  in  the  morning  that  he  might  have  a  longer 
time  to  enjoy  the  pleasure  of  being  king,  and  officiated 


P  '^lEDEIilCK    THE    GREAT. 

until  evening.  There  was  majesty  at  the  council,  at 
table,  in  the  smoking-room ;  majesty  in  the  presence  of 
the  qeeen.  His  garments  were  fastened  with  buttons 
of  gold  and  diamonds,  and  his  perukes  came  from 
Paris.  When  he  traveled  from  place  to  place,  it  was 
in  great  pomp.  His  journeys  by  land  were  long,  slow, 
magnificent  processions  of  coaches.  A  boat  from  Hol- 
land or  a  gondola  bore  him  upon  the  water.  He  spoke 
of  himself  and  of  the  queen,  his  wife,  with  circumlocu- 
tions of  etiquette,  enveloping  in  solemnity  his  name, 
as  well  as  his  person.  He  was  not  a  wicked  man,  on 
the  contrary,  he  was  a  good  husband,  and  a  good 
father  to  his  family.  6  He  kept  a  mistress,  only  to 
imitate  Louis  XIV.  through  a  professional  point  of 
honor. 

The  birth  of  Frederick  was  welcomed  by  him  with 
more  than  usual  pleasure,  as  two  of  his  grandsons  had 
already  died  at  an  early  age.  It  was  rumored  in  Ber- 
lin that  they  had  been  victims  of  the  contingencies 
of  royalty,  neither  one  being  able  to  bear,  on  his  bap- 
tismal day,  the  noise  of  the  cannons  and  firecrackers, 
the  weight  of  the  silk  mantle,  the  diamond  insignia 
of  the  Black  Eagle,  and  the  golden  crown  in  which 
he  was  arrayed.  In  reality,  the  poor  little  things 
died  a  very  ordinary  death  from  teething.  So  King 
Frederick  watched  with  anxiety  for  the  first  tooth  of 
little  Fritz.  This  child  appeared  to  him  to  be  born 
to  a  glorious  destiny,  because  his  birth  took  place  in 
January,  that  is  to  say,  in  the  month  of  his  own 
coronation,  at  Konigsburg,  eleven  years  before.  He 
desired   that  the   baptism   should    be  celebrated   before 


CHILDHOOD.  6 

the  end  of  the  " month  of  coronation,"  and  that  his 
grandson  should  be  called  Frederick,  "the  name  of 
Frederick  having  always  brought  good  fortune  to  his 
House." 

January  31st,  the  child,  crown  on  head,  clothed  in 
a  robe  of  silver  tissue,  studded  with  diamonds,  the  train 
of  which  was  held  up  by  six  countesses,  was  carried 
to  the  chapel  of  the  palace,  under  a  canopy  supported 
by  a  princess  and  two  princes.  The  king,  also,  under 
a  canopy  which  was  supported  at  the  corners  by  four 
chamberlains,  its  silk  pendants  held  by  four  knights 
of  the  Order  of  the  Black  Eagle,  awaited  him.  The 
godfathers  and  godmothers  represented  were  the  Em- 
peror, Czar  Peter,  the  States-General  of  Holland,  the 
Canton  of  Berne  and  the  Elector  of  Hanover,  the  Em- 
press Dowager,  the  Electress  and  the  Electress-mother 
of  Hanover,  the  Duchess  of  Brunswick  and  the  Dow- 
ager Duchess  of  Mecklenburg.  The  States-General 
sent,  among  other  baptismal  presents,  a  gold  box,  con- 
taining a  deed  of  annuity  of  four  thousand  florins. 
All  the  bells  of  the  city,  three  salvos  of  cannon,  as  well 
as  drums  and  trumpets,  announced  to  the  people  of 
Berlin  that  the  world  counted  one  more  Christian.  The 
cortege  in  procession  re-entered  the  apartments  between 
files  of  Swiss  and  a  body-guard.  7 

Fritz  showed  a  desire  to  live.  His  grandfather  saw 
with  pleasure  how  bravely  he  drew  the  breast.  His 
teeth  came  very  quickly,  six  at  the  end  of  six  months, 
and  without  causing  him  the  least  inconvenience.  "One 
can  see  in  this,"  wrote  Frederick,  "a  kind  of  predes- 
tination. May  God  preserve  him  to  us  a  long  time 
yet."8 


4  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

It  was  the  grandfather  that  God  did  not  preserve 
a  long  time  to  the  grandson.  Frederick  I.  died  Feb- 
ruary 27,  1713.  The  child,  who  had  received  at 
birth  the  titles  of  Prince  of  Prussia  and  of  Orange, 
became  the  Crown  Prince. 

The  new  king,  Frederick  William,  had  manifested 
from  childhood  a  violent  aversion  for  ceremonies  and 
luxury.  One  day,  when  quite  a  small  child,  curled, 
powdered,  clad  in  a  gala  costume,  he  hid  himself  in 
a  chimney,  whence  he  was  pulled  out,  black  as  a 
chimney-sweep.  He  threw  a  brocaded  night-robe  into 
the  fire,  soon  after  it  was  tried  on  him.  The  sight 
of  the  big  perukes  made  him  furious.  Finding  some 
courtiers  in  his  father's  antechamber,  warming  them- 
selves, with  their  heads  thrown  back,  so  as  not  to 
scorch  their  beautiful  periwigs,  which  had  cost  them 
200  thalers,  he  forced  them  to  throw  their  wigs  into  the 
fire.  Another  time,  they  picked  up  at  the  foot  of  the 
staircase  a  maitre  cle  la  cour  whom  he  had  kicked  to  the 
bottom.  He  was  extremely  parsimonious,  and  kept 
an  exact  account  of  his  receipts  and  expenditures,  in 
a  faultless  register,  on  the  first  page  of  which  he  had 
written:  "Redlining  iiber  meine  Ducaten, — Account  of 
my  Ducats."  "Miser,"  exclaimed  his  mother,  "and 
at  so  tender  an  age  !  "  But  no  remonstrance  corrected 
it.  Magnificence  gave  him  nausea,  and  prodigality  ) 
fits  of   rage. 

After  having  received  the  last  sigh  of  his  father, 
Frederick  William  left  the  chamber  of  death,  passed 
through  the  crowd  of  weeping  chamberlains,  pages 
and    people    of    the    Court,     and    shut  himself    up    in 


CHILDHOOD.  5 

his  own  apartments.  After  deliberating  there  a 
short  while,  he  requested  the  Grand-Marshal,  Von 
Printzen,  to  bring  him  the  " Court  Register."  He  ran 
over  the  list  of  dignitaries,  servitors  and  pensioners, 
seized  a  pen,  and  made  a  great  mark  from  top  to 
bottom,  saying  that  he  would  do  away  with  them  all, 
but  wished  each  one  to  remain  at  his  post,  until  after 
the  funeral  ceremonies  of  his  father.  Printzen  came 
out,  saying  not  a  word,  but  he  had  so  troubled  a  look 
upon  his  face,  that  one  of  the  courtiers,  the  best  pro- 
vided with  titles  and  functions,  Lieutenant  von  Tettau, 
Chamberlain,  Chief  of  the  Body-guard,  Governor  of 
Spandau,  Knight  of  the  Black  Eagle,  stopped  him, 
and  took  the  paper  out  of  his  hands.  He  saw  the  big 
mark.  "Gentlemen,"  said  he,  "the  king  our  good  mas- 
ter is  dead,  and  the  new  king  sends  us  all  to  the  devil." 
All  of  the  long-peruked  crowd  were  present  May  2, 
1713,  at  the  obsequies  of  Frederick  I.  The  son  wished 
to  have  his  father  interred,  as  he  had  lived,  with  great 
pomp.  The  ceremonies  lasted  more  than  two  months. 
The  body  remained  eight  days  in  state,  upon  a  bed  of 
red  velvet,  embroidered  in  pearls,  enriched  with  crowns 
and  golden  eagles ;  upon  his  head  was  the  crown ; 
upon  his  shoulders,  the  mantle  of  purple  and  ermine; 
on  his  chest,  the  Grand  Cordon  and  Order  of  the  Black 
Eagle ;  at  right  and  left  the  scepter  and  the  sword. 
The  chamber,  hung  with  violet  Velvet,  was  illuminated 
with  a  profusion  of  wax  candles.  On  March  4,  the 
body,  clothed  in  cloth  of  gold,  was  placed  in  the 
coffin,  and  carried  to  the  palace  chapel,  which  was 
transformed  into  a  Castmm  doloris.     On  the  second  of 


6  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

May,  between  lines  of  regiments — nearly  all  the  Prus- 
sian army  was  there  —  the  funeral  cortege  proceeded 
to  the  cathedral.  Behind  Count  Dohna,  the  gen- 
eral who  held  the  standard,  the  new  king  advanced, 
enveloped  in  a  long  mantle  of  mourning,  the  train  of 
which  was  carried  by  the  grand  equerry,  the  entire 
Court  following.  In  the  church,  transformed  into  a 
mausoleum,  the  wiiite  marble  statues  of  the  Hohen- 
zollern  Electors  of  Brandenburg  were  placed  around 
the  catafalque,  as  a  guard  of  honor  for  the  first  of  their 
descendants  who  had  attained  to  the  distinction  of  roy- 
alty. Pictures  and  inscriptions  recalled  the  principal 
virtues  of  the  deceased. 

The  solemn  service  ended,  Frederick  William  himself 
ordered  the  salvos.  Then  he  returned  to  his  own  apart- 
ments. He  had  given  a  rare  proof  of  filial  piety  in 
prolonging  the  ceremonies  two  months.  It  was  a  great 
relief  to  him  when  he  had  interred  this  ceremonial  life 
with  his  father,  and  saw  dispersed  the  grand  officials, 
the  chamberlains,  the  pages,  the  twenty-six  drum- 
mers and  trumpeters,  who  announced  all  the  move- 
ments of  the  king,  the  musicians  of  the  royal 
chapel,  and  the  hundred  Swiss  'guards  clothed  in  silk, 
velvet  and  gold.  The  useless  ones,  who  did  not  ex- 
change the  gold  key  for  the  pistol,  or  pumps  for  the 
boots  of  a  cuirassier,  went  "  to  the  devil."  The  pearls, 
precious  stones  and  diamonds  were  sold  to  pay  the  debts 
of  the  late  king,  who  was  always  sadly  in  need.  Then 
Frederick  William  commenced  to  live  the  life  of  a  well- 
to-do  civilian,  economical  to  avarice,  ordering  his  house- 
hold   himself,    keeping   a  strict  account  with  his  cook. 


CHILDHOOD. 


Thus  two  months  had  not  elapsed  before  he  had  levied 
two  new  battalions  of   grenadiers.  9 


jm 


OVEKXESS THE    FIRST    MASTERS THE    PRECEPTOR 

AND    THE    SUB-PRECEPTOR. 


Frederick  William  wished  his  sons  and  daughters  to 
be  educated,  not  as  princes  and  princesses,  but  as  chil- 
dren of  simple  folk.  He  intended  that  the  inheritors 
of  his  crown  should  be  otherwise  dealt  with,  than  the 
young  king  Louis  XV.,  whose  least  gesture  and  act  the 
journals  related  to  the  world,  and  whom  the  Emperor 
called  "the  child  of  Europe."10  As  unassuming  as  he 
was,  however,  the  King  of  Prussia  could  not  refuse  to 
give  his  son  a  governess,  and  at  the  proper  age  a  pre- 
ceptor and  a  tutor. 

He  had  been  educated  by  a  French-woman,  Madame 
de  Montbail,  for  whom  he  always  had  an  affection- 
ate remembrance,  perhaps  on  account  of  the  many 
bad  tricks  he  had  played  her.  So  he  wished  that 
Madame  de  Montbail  (she  had  become  Madame  de 
Rocoulle)  should  educate  his  children,  and  he  there- 
fore appointed  her  "governess  of  the  royal  prince 
and  princesses."  The  royal  princesses  were,  at  that 
time,  in  1714,  Sophia  Frederica  Wilhelmina,  two 
and  a  half  years  older  than  the  prince,  and  Char- 
lotte Albertina,  a  year  and  a  half  younger.  Madame 
de  Rocoulle  was  to  give  the  children  religious  instruc- 
tion, and  teach  them  to  read  the  Bible.  The  same 
year,  while  the  King  of  Prussia  was  at  the  siege  of 
Stralsund,  he  noticed  a  young  cavalier  who  seemed 
pleased  to  place  himself  where  there  was  the  most  dan- 


8  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

ger.  The  king  had  this  young  officer  presented,  while 
in  a  trench,  by  Count  Dohna,  who  was  acquainted  with 
him,  for  he  had  confided  a  part  of  the  education  of 
his  own  son  to  him;  Frederick  William  engaged  him 
to  be,  at  the  end  of  two  years,  the  informator  of 
the  prince.  This  young  man  called  himself  Jacques 
Egide  Duhan ;  like  Madame  de  Rocoulle,  he  was 
French.  Installed  in  his  functions,  in  1716,  he  had 
to  "  explain  maps  to  his  pupil,  teach  him  the  history 
of  the  last  hundred  years  and  no  more,  then  the  history 
of  the  Bible,  but,  above  all,  calculation."  Finally, 
when  the  prince  was  just  attaining  his  seventh  year, 
the  king  appointed  his  old  preceptor,  General  Count 
Fink  von  Finkenstein,  tutor,  and  Colonel  von  Kalkstein 
sub-tutor. ll 

Little   did   the   King  of    Prussia  think  that  he  was 

doing  a  grave  thing  in  confiding  the  education  of  his 

son  to  these  two  groups  of   persons,  whose  ideas  were 

so    opposite,  the    French    refugees   and    the   Prussian 

"  officers. 

Said  Frederick  the  Great  later,  "It  is  rare  that  one 
takes  a  tutor  from  a  trench."  It  is  rare,  in  fact,  and 
very  Prussian.  Frederick  William  had  as  professional 
masters  very  grave  men ;  among  them,  Frederick  Kra- 
mer, a  learned  philologist  and  jurisconsult,  who,  one 
day,  becoming  offended  at  a  jesting  discourse  of 
Father  Bouhours  upon  this  theme:  "Is  it  possible  for 
a  German  to  have  wit?"  replied  by  a  dissertation  en- 
titled: "Vindication  of  the  Germanic  name  against 
certain  Gaul  detractors  of  the  Germans, —  Vindicice 
nominis  Germanici  contra,  quosdam  Germanorum  obtrec- 


CHILDHOOD.  9 

tatores  Gallos."  The  king,  who  was  not  a  pedant,  and 
who  loved  not  dissertations,  hastened  to  obtain  for  the 
informator  of  his  son,  a  cavalier.  He  did  not  know 
that  this  cavalier  was  a  man  of  more  learning  than 
his   Kramer. 

Jacques  Egide  Duhan  de  Jandun12  was  born  at  Jandun, 
in  Champagne,  the  year  of  the  revocation  of  the  Edict 
of  Nantes.  His  father,  former  secretary  of  Turenne 
and  former  Counselor  of  State,  left  France  in  1687, 
and  went  to  Berlin,  where  he  became  secretary  of  the 
Great  Elector.  He  undertook  the  education  of  his  son 
himself,  and  did  not  send  him  to  the  "Gymnase  Fran- 
cois," then  recently  opened.  He  taught  him  the  lan- 
guages, classical  literature,  history  and  rhetoric.  The 
paternal  lessons  were  supplemented  by  those  of  La 
Croze  and  De  Naude. 

Naude  left  Metz  in  1685,  the  same  day  that  they 
closed  the  last  Protestant  church  in  that  city.  Arriv- 
ing in  Berlin  in  1687,  he  gained  a  livelihood  by  giving 
lessons  in  mathematics ;  after  that  he  gave  instruc- 
tion in  mathematics,  first,  in  the  College  of  Joachims- 
thal,  afterward,  in  the  Academy  of  Arts.  But  his 
favorite  study  was  theology,  upon  which  he  brought 
to  bear  the  strength  of  his  mind  as  a  geometrician. 
He   composed   two   volumes    upon  evangelical  morals.13 

La  Croze  had  been  a  monk  ill  the  monastery  of  St. 
Germain-des-Pres.  In  1693,  tormented  by  conscientious 
scruples,  he  fled  to  Bale  and  made  a  profession  of  Pro- 
testantism. Berlin  attracted  French  refugees  in  great 
numbers :  the  nobles  were  assured  of  finding  a  place 
in  the  army   or  at  the  court ;  the  magistrates,   in   the 


10  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

tribunals ;  the  men  of  letters,  in  intellectual  offices, 
where  they  had  but  little  to  fear  from  native  compe- 
tition. La  Croze  went  then  to  Berlin,  where  he  was 
put  in  charge  of  the  Electoral  Library,  which  became 
the  Royal  Library  three  years  afterward.  He  was 
himself  a  library,  "a  regular  storehouse,"  said  Fred- 
erick later.  His  memory  was  prodigious.  One  day, 
before  Leibnitz,  he  recited  twelve  verses  in  a  dozen 
different  languages,  after  having  heard  them  but  once. 
No  question  surprised  him :  he  had  an  answer  for 
everything.  Whenever  he  was  asked  for  information, 
and  referred  to  a  book,  he  gave  the  edition  and  page. 
In  addition  to  his  native  language,  he  spoke  fluently, 
English,  Spanish,  Portuguese,  Italian  and  German.  He 
understood  Latin,  ancient  and  modern  Greek  and  Hebrew. 
He  learned  the  Slavic,  Basque  and  Oriental  languages, 
and  among  them,  in  order  to  please  Leibnitz,  Chinese. 
He  was  not  a  profound  philologist;  he  had  neither 
the  taste  nor  the  time  to  penetrate  into  the  genius  of 
the  languages  that  he  studied,  because  he  was  of  an 
inquisitive  mind,  and  learned,  simply  because  he  could 
not  refrain  from  learning  everything  he  saw.  He  knew, 
in  the  same  way,  philosophy  and  history.  All  his 
learning  manifested  itself  in  his  conversation;  without 
cessation,  he  discoursed,  narrated,  cited  and  recited. 
He  told  droll  stories  in  the  tone  of  a  psalmodi-st,  for 
this  ungarbed  monk  still  showed  the  cut  of  his  frock.14 
Duhan  de  Jandun,  the  father,  La  Croze,  and  Naude, 
were  indirectly  Frederick's  masters,  since  they  edu- 
cated his  master.  Moreover,  the  prince  knew  La  Croze 
and    Naude,    as    he    had    often    seen    and    heard    them 


CHILDHOOD.  11 

when    a    child.       These    three    men    were    antoclidacts, 


and  there  is  no  better  culture  for  minds  born  thought- 
ful and  capable  of  study,  than  that  which  they  give 
to  themselves ;  for  school,  with  its  precise  rules  and 
hieratic  customs,  does  not  allow  enough  play  to  the 
intellect.  It  is  true  that  all  times  are  not  propitious 
for  the  free  exercise  of  personal  education.  But  the 
eighteenth  century  offered  such  admirable  facilities  for 
the  expansion  of  free  effort!  In  our  day,  only  the 
greatest  intellects  acquire  an  entire  science,  master  and 
classify  it  in  the  concourse  of  knowledge :  the  others, 
in  the  throng,  dwell  painfully  upon  the  detail,  which 
continually  increases  and  multiplies,  hiding  the  science 
from  them,  like  the  trees  that  prevent  one  from  see- 
ing the  forest.  Toilsome  lives  serve  out  their  time  in 
little  corners  of  the  intellectual  domain.  In  the  eight- 
eenth century  this  whole  domain  was  exposed  to  view : 
it  could  be  surveyed  with  ease.  Inquiry  was  univer- 
sal and  truly  philosophical.  The  men  of  that  time, — 
to  whom  an  extensive  reading  gave,  together  with 
great  literary,  historical,  and  scientific  culture,  the  il- 
lusion of  believing  that  they  knew  everything  that 
could  be  known, — lived  in  a  continual  intellectual  fete 
that  the  world  will  never  see  again.  „     -r 

The  childhood  of    Frederick    was    thus    confided    to 


FrencK  people.  It  is  true  that  they  were  exiles.  The 
opinions  that  they  brought  with  them  were  not  those 
of  the  majority  of  their  nation,  which  had,  alas  !  wel- 
comed with  Te  Deums  the  persecution  of  these  her- 
etics. Calvinism  had  marked  them  with  its  grave 
impress,  which  had  frightened  and  rebuffed  a  people 
naturally  gay. 


■^vfr 


12  FREDERICK   THE    GREAT. 

A  gentler  influence  was  exercised  over  the  soul  of 
Frederick  by  his  governess.  She,  too,  had  sacrificed 
her  country  for  her  religion.  Widow  of  M.  de  Mont- 
bail,  and  still  young,  she  took  her  family  to  a  foreign 
country,  the  day  after  the  revocation  of  the  Edict  of 
Nantes,  at  a  time  when  an  exodus  was  not  without 
peril.  This  courageous  woman  had  also  mind.  She 
spoke  her  language  prettily  and  knew  how  to  turn  a 
verse  well.  It  seems  that  she  was  not  afraid  of  an 
amusing  joke,  even  if  it  was  a  little  broad.  She  knew 
how  to  hold  a  salon,  a  rare  thing  in  Berlin. 15  It  was 
at  the  Court  itself,  that  she  found  a  refuge,  near 
Sophia  Charlotte,  wife  of  Frederick  I.,  who  so  little 
resembled  her  husband.  The  gazettes  of  the  time 
state  that  nature  lavished  upon  this  princess  charms 
of  both  body  and  mind.  Sophia  Charlotte  was  gay 
and  -artless,  and  she  had  a  bewitching  way  of  making 
game  of  her  solemn  husband.  The  day  of  his  coro- 
nation, in  all  that  pomp  of  pomps,  she  drew  forth  her 
snuffbox  and  took  a  pinch  of  snuff.  And  yet  she 
was  serious,  and  religious,  with  that  charming  restless- 
ness of  a  woman  philosopher,  abhorring  the  unknown. 
Pier  religion  and  her  philosophy  enlightened  each  other, 
but  neither  the  one  nor  the  other,  nor  the  two  united, 
pretended  to  possess  the  full  light.  So  her  curiosity 
was  never  satisfied;  unceasingly,  she  demanded  of  her 
friend  Leibnitz  the  why  of  whys,  that  he  could  not 
answer.  She  loved  the  arts,  as  well  as  philosophy, 
and  music  above  all.  She  had  also  a  taste  for  poetry.16 
The  memory  of  Sophia  Charlotte  had  that  particular 
charm   of    a    queen    who    had    made    herself    beloved. 


CHILDHOOD.  13 

Her  name  recalled  the  brilliancy  of  the  old  court,  and 
its  intellectual  life.  It  evoked  a  past  entirely  different 
from  that  uncouth,  strange  present,  in  which  they  lived 
under  the  reign  of  Frederick  William  I.  Madame  de 
Rocoulle  kept  fresh  in  the  minds  of  the  children  of 
Prussia  the  memory  and  the  sayings  of  the  good  queen.17 
Frederick's  eldest  sister  would  have  liked  to  be 
called  Charlotte,  and  would  have  desired  nothing  so 
much  as  to  resemble  her  grandmother.  Frederick  must 
have  often  heard  his  governess  speak  of  this  lettered, 
philosophical,   and  musical  queen. 

And,  finally,  when  one  seeks  to  recognize  all  the 
vague  wTorld  of  influences  which  surround  and  pene- 
trate the  soul  of  a  child,  one  should  not  neglect  this 
little  fact :  during  the  thirty  years  that  she  was  in  Ger- 
many, Madame  de  Rocoulle  had  never  learned  a  word 
of  the  language.      She  remained  purely  French. 

General  Fink  and  Colonel  Kalkstein18  were  men  of 
culture,  the  latter  particularly ;  he  was  to  have  his  part 
in  the  education  of  Frederick.  But  the  king  chose  them 
both  for  their  virtues  as  soldiers. 

Kalkstein  was  thirty-six  years  old  when  he  was  ap- 
pointed tutor  to  the  prince.  He  had  made  his  first 
venture  at  arms  in  the  service  of  Hesse  Cassel.  Freder- 
ick William  had  known  him  in  the  Netherlands,  when, 
as  Heir-apparent  of  Prussia,  he  was  serving  his  military 
apprenticeship  under  Prince  Eugene. 

Kalkstein  distinguished  himself  in  the  battle  of  Mal- 
plaquet.  He  joined  the  Prussian  army  as  volunteer, 
during  the  campaign  of  Pomerania,  in  1714,  and  the 
king  had  taken  him  into  service  in  the  capacity  of 
lieutenant-colonel. 


14  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

General  Fink  was  sixty  years  old  ;  a  veteran  of  the 
European  wars.  Born  in  Prussia,  of  a  very  old  family, 
which  was  established  in  the  time  of  the  Teutonic 
Order,  he  was  seventeen,  when  he  entered,  as  volunteer, 
the  army  of  the  Prince  of  Orange.  He  served  in  the 
campaigns  of  1676  and  1677  against  France,  and  was 
wounded  and  taken  prisoner.  In  order  to  regain  his 
liberty,  he  accepted  the  offer  of  passing  into  the  French 
army,  and  fought  against  the  Spaniards  on  the  Pyrenees 
frontier.  He  then  became  an  officer  of  some  note,  and 
was  known  to  Louvois.  Peace  concluded,  he  obtained 
permission  to  go  into  Brandenburg  and  make  recruits. 
The  Great  Elector  graciously  welcomed  him:  "Your 
father,"  said  he,  "was  my  chamberlain,  and  an  honest 
man ;  he  broke  his  leg  on  my  account.  One  day,  at 
Cleves,  I  desired  to  enter  the  castle  by  passing  over  a 
plank  ;  he  wished  to  see  if  it  was  firm,  and  he  broke 
his  leg.  .  .  Conduct  yourself  well,  and,  if  it  pleases 
you  to  enter  my  service,  I  will  take  care  of  you."  Fink 
returned  to  France,  but  soon  left  it,  as  did  most  of  his 
compatriots,  when  the  war  of  the  Coalition  of  Augs- 
burg broke  out.  He  offered  himself  to  the  Great 
Elector.  As  he  had  been  captain  in  the  French  army, 
he  passed  to  the  rank  of  major  in  that  of  Brandenburg. 
Until  the  Peace  of  Ryswick,  he  fought  in  the  cam- 
paigns on  the  Rhine,  always  distinguishing  himself. 
During  the  War  of  the  Spanish  Succession,  he  almost 
attained  renown.  At  Hochstedt,  in  August,  1704,  it 
was  he,  perhaps,  who  assured  victory  to  the  Coali- 
tionists by  the  disposition  that  he  made  of  the  right 
wing  of  their  army.      He  was  then  a  general,  and  the 


£*A 


KX^ 


CHILDHOOD.  15 


Crown  Prince  Frederick  William's  preceptor.  He  took 
the  Crown  Prince  with  him  to  the  Netherlands,  and  was 
one  of  the  heroes  of  Malplaquet.  To  recompense  him 
for  his  services,  the  Emperor,  upon  the  proposition  of 
Prince  Eugene,  named  him  Count  of  the  Empire. 
Frederick  William,  on  his  accession,  showed  him  all  the 
favor  of  which  he  was  capable.  Fink  accompanied  his 
new  master  in  the  Pomeranian  campaign. 

As  preceptor  of  Prince  Frederick,  he  represented  to 
this  child  war  considered  as  the  profession  of  nobles, 
war  loved  for  itself,  and  sought  for  everywhere,  as 
the  chevaliers  of  old  sought  it  in  the  crusades  and  in 
adventure.  This  profession  of  arms  was  not  en- 
tirely confined  to  one  nation.  The  royal  and  imperial 
armies  and  those  of  the  United  Provinces  were  filled 
with  foreigners.  The  common  soldier  is  a  kind  of 
workman  in  military  corporations,  who  makes  his  tour 
of  the  world,  and  stops  where  the  trade  is  flourishing, 
that  is  to  say,  where  war,  swooping  down  and  fastening 
upon  some  rich  country,  is  capable  of  nourishing  its 
artisans.  As  soon  as  the  country  is  impoverished,  the 
news  is  spread  abroad,  and  they  say  that  war  is  "played 
out"  in  Flanders,  or  on  the  Rhine,  or  in  Lombardy. 
It  is  then  necessary  to  pay  the  soldier  more.  In  this 
league  the  nobleman  exercises  the  right  of  going  from 
place  to  place.  He  has  no  scruples  in  changing  camp, 
provided  he  does  not  fight  face  to  face  with  his  prince. 
Taken  by  the  French  in  Flanders,  where  he  fought 
against  them,  he  will  serve  them  in  the  Pyrenees, 
against  the  Spaniards.  His  prince  does  not  become 
angry  with  him ;  on  the  contrary,  he  praises  him  for  his 


16  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

bravery,  and,  if  the  officer  takes  orders  again  under  him, 
he  retains  the  rank  he  acquired  in  the  opposing  camp. 
At  that  time  Europe  presented  a  strange  picture  of  in- 
ternational advancement  for  these  military  noblemen. 
These  officers  were  true  men  of  war,  who  had  served 
under  all  the  illustrious  chiefs,  and  had  observed  the 
diversity  of  their  temper  and  genius.  Fink  had  known 
the  Prince  of  Orange,  Luxembourg,  Louvois,  Prince  Eu- 
gene, Marlborough, — to  name  only  the  most  celebrated, — 
and  in  the  greatest  actions  of  the  gigantic  struggle 
where  the  fortunes  of  Ancient  France  were  crushed,  he 
could  say:  "I  was  there,  and  such  a  thing  happened 
to  me." 

Fink  of  Finkenstein  and  Kalkstein  had  been  chosen 
from  the  Pleiades  of  Prussian  warriors.  The  Court,  if 
one  could  so  call  the  persons  around  Frederick  William, 
was  full  of  officers,  so  tightly  laced  in  their  short  coats 
that  they  were  almost  ready  to  suffocate.  The  cham- 
berlains whom  the  king  had  retained  were  four  generals. 
His  dining  and  smoking  apartments  were  open,  through 
preference,  to  the  veterans  of  the  battles  of  the  Rhine 
and  Danube.  A  very  rude,  half-barbarous  company,  to 
say  the  least,  uncouth  ;  eating,  drinking,  smoking  and 
talking  with  him. 

The  principal  personage  was  Leopold,  reigning 
Prince  of  Anhalt-Dessau,  as  noble  as  the  Emperor  and^e^- 
King  of  Prussia,  and  even  of  older  nobility,  for  his 
ancestor,  Albert  the  Bear,  Margrave  of  Brandenburg, 
played  his  role  in  the  great  affairs  of  Christianity,  in 
the  time  of  Frederick  Barbarossa,  when  the  Hohenzoll- 
erns,  and  Hapsburgs,  too,  were  but  mites  in  the  dust  of 


CHILDHOOD.  IT 

small  dynasties  that  overran  the  Empire.  Leopold's 
family  was  closely  allied  to  the  royal  family  of  Prussia. 
From  his  palace  to  the  Palace  of  Berlin  was  but  a  day's 
journey  by  post.  As  he  was  not  a  person  to  fall  asleep 
in  his  peruke  in  some  little  imitative  Versailles,  he  en- 
tered the  service  of  Prussia.  He  also  had  learned  war, 
by  war.  He  had  made  his  first  venture  at  arms  with 
his  cousin,  William  of  Orange  ;  sieges,  skirmishes,  bat- 
tles, he  loved  passionately.  During  the  War  of  the 
Spanish  Succession  he  was  at  Blenheim,  in  the  right 
wing,  under  the  orders  of  Prince  Eugene.  In  the  midst 
of  the  general  confusion  of  the  Austrian  cavalry  he 
remained  firm,  attacking,  recoiling,  maneuvering,  send- 
ing forth  volley  after  volley,  until  Marlborough,  who 
was  victorious  on  the  left  wing,  came  to  his  aid.  He 
was  at  the  Cassano  bridge,  "  during  the  heaviest  fight- 
ing I  ever  saw,"  said  Prince  Eugene  ;  for  hours  he 
remained  in  the  river  with  his  infantry,  which  was 
partly  destroyed. 

At  the  attack  of  the  lines  of  Turin,  in  1706,  he  was 
the  first  to  leap  into  the  entrenchment.  As  the  French 
remained  steadfast  at  their  post,  and  the  combat  was 
prolonged,  Anhalt,  dying  of  hunger  and  thirst,  stepped 
to  one  side  for  a  moment ;  he  caught  sight  of  a  cap- 
tain :  "Ami  wounded?"  "No,  Your  Highness!" — 
"No?  Then  have  you  something  to  drink?"  He 
swallowed  a  glass  of  brandy,  then  a  piece  of  bread 
that  a  grenadier  gave  him,  and  returned  to  his  post. 
He  was  also  at  the  siege  of  Stralsund  and  at  Mal- 
plaquet. 

The   Prince    of   Anhalt    was    skilled    in   the    science 


18  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

of  war.  It  is  said  that  it  was  he  who  invented  the 
marching  in  step,  and  the  iron  ramrod.  He  constantly 
studied  tactics,  and  he  carried  to  great  perfection 
the  drill  a  la  Prussian.  He  had  been  the  principal 
collaborator  and  inspirer  of  Frederick  William ;  he 
proposed  reforms  and  tested  them ;  the  king  renewed 
the  experience  and  decided.  When  these  two  men 
found  it  impossible  to  be  together,  they  corresponded 
in  short  letters  like  business  men.  Leopold  was,  like 
the  king,  an  administrator  as  well  as  a  soldier ;  good 
economist,  he  knew  that  it  was  through  "  careful  man- 
agement" that  the  soldiers  were  paid.  He  increased 
more  than  their  gross  value  the  revenues  of  his  little 
principality.  A  peculiar  persfbn  but  yet  agreeable, 
when  it  so  pleased  him,  with  princely  manners,  knowing- 
how  to  speak  French  as  well  as  a  native,  indeed  even 
how  to  converse,  but  ordinarily  disdaining  to  be 
gracious.  His  religion  resembled  that  of  the  Reiters 
of  the  fifteenth  century.  He  sung  the  Psalms  to  the 
tune  of  the  " March  of  Dessau."  On  the  field  during 
action,  he  said,  with  head  bared,  a  short  prayer.  He 
called  Luther's  hymn, —  "A  Mighty  Fortress  is  Our 
God," — "The  March  of  the  Dragoons  of  Our  Lord." 
Contemner  of  forms  and  established  customs,  this 
prince  of  the  Empire  married  an  apothecary's  daughter, 
to  the  great  scandal  of  the  country  at  large.  His  fame 
and  ,his  victories  obtained  from  the  Emperor  the  recog- 
nition of  Fraulein  Fos  as  a  legitimate  princess.  The 
whole  personality  of  Anhalt  was  expressive.  He  was 
tall,  bony,  hairy,  and-  wore  a  heavy  mustache  on  his 
clear  strong  lip.     He  had  an    open   eye,    and    a  pene- 


CHILDHOOD.  19 

i 

trating  look  like  all  observing  people.  His  face, 
discolored  by  gunpowder,  was  framed  in  a  solid  jaw. 
His  physiognomy  was  full  of  determination,  of  resolu- 
tion, and  seemed  to  say:  "Let  come,  what  will." 
It  was  that  of  a  man  of  strength,  a  servitor  to  the 
wishes  of  a  master  who  employed  himself  in  forging 
this  strength. 19 

/  Fink,  Kalkstein,  Anhalt,  on  the  one  side  ;  on  the  other, 
/  French  refugees :  these  are  Frederick's  teachers,  these 
*^the  environments  and  influences  at  work  upon  his 
youthful  mind.  The  former  are  war  veterans,  the 
latter,  martyrs  to  the  faith,  who  sacrificed  honors, 
fortune,  country  (and  such  a  country!)  to  the  service 
of  God.  The  lives  of  all  were  lessons  of  heroism, 
but  the  officers  were,  according  to  the  king's  idea,  his 
son's  only  instructors.  Compared  with  them,  the  inform- 
ator^  Duhan,  was  a  small  personage,  hardly  visible. 
The  object  of  the  education  being  to  make  of  him  a 
chief  of  state,  and  a  chief  of  war,  the  true  masters 
should  be  the  king's  generals.  The  principal  merit 
of  Duhan  was  his  brave  conduct  under  fire  of  the 
Swedes :  philosophy,  science,  letters,  these  the  King 
of  Prussia  did  not  take  into  account  at  all. 

Frederick  William  did  not  know  that  he  was  going 
to  put  Minerva  and  Bellona  into  competition  in  the 
mind  of  his  son.  This  Spartan  did  not  burn  the 
smallest  grain  of  incense  upon  the  altar  of  the  goddess 
of  Athens.  Had  he  seen  in  Duhan  all  this  vast 
world  of  thought  and  learning,  he  would  have  turned 
his  head  away,  instead  of  having  this  young  man 
presented  to  him  in  the  trench  at  Stralsund. 


20  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

Without  either  the  knowledge  or  the  wish,  he  offered 
to  his  son  the  double  education  which  accorded  best 
with  his  nature  and  with  the  genius  which  slumbered 
within  him. 

INSTRUCTION    TO    THE    PRECEPTORS. 

According  to  custom,  Frederick  William  remitted  to 
the  preceptors  an  Instruction  upon  the  education  of 
his  son.  He  utilized  the  one  that  had  been  given  to 
his  own  instructor,  in  1695,  by  the  king  his  father; 
but  there  were  some  corrections  made,  which  were 
certainly  from  his  own  hand. 

Frederick  I.  used  the  majestic  style  of  language  as 
was  his  custom.20  He  began  by  thanking  God  for 
His  kindness  in  giving  to  him  an  heir  "to  so  many 
and  such  great  countries,"  "to  such  magnificent  coun- 
tries." He  professed  to  be  overpowered  with  the 
responsibilities  imposed  upon  him,  in  the  education  of 
a  prince,  upon  whom  depended  "the  salvation  and 
happiness  of  so  many  millions  of  men."  He  said  in 
speaking  of  himself:  "We";  of  his  wife  and  son, 
"our  revered  wife  the  Dilection,  our  well-beloved 
son."  Frederick  William  divested  the  words  of  their 
flourishes.  As  his  millions  of  subjects  did  not  amount 
to  two,  he  did  not  enumerate  them.  As  his  countries 
were  not  so  magnificent,  he  struck  out  the  epithet, 
and  said  "the  countries,"  "all  the  countries."  He 
wrote:     "I,"  "My  wife,"   "My  son." 

The  Instruction  for  1695  may  be  divided  into  five 
parts :  Moral  and  religious  training ;  intellectual  train- 
ing ;    training    in    deportment;    physical   training;  pre- 


CHILDHOOD.  21 

scriptions  relative  to  the  prerogatives  of  the  preceptor, 
to  the  supervision  that  he  must  exercise  over  the 
prince,  to  the  authority  with  which  the  king  invested 
him.  Frederick  William  retained  these  divisions  but, 
in  each  one  of  them,  he  left  out  or  added  something. 

The  chapter  on  intellectual  training  was  abridged. 
Frederick  I.  had  desired  that  his  son  should  learn 
Latin,  history  with  geography  and  genealogy,  French 
and  mathematics.  Upon  each  subject  he  deduced  his 
reasons.  He  feared,  it  is  true,  that  the  "Dilection  of 
his  son"  would  dwell  too  long  upon  themes  and  rules, 
experience  having  proved  "that  the  humdrum  of  gram- 
matical exercises  disgusted  young  princes  with  the 
beautiful  Latin  language";  but  the  study  of  this  lan- 
guage appeared  indispensable,  because  the  Golden  Bull 
decreed  it,  because  Latin  was  employed  in  diplomacy 
by  several  powers,  and  finally  because  it  was  a  great 
aid  in  an  historical  or  political  education.  The  king 
then  ordered  that  his  son  should  learn  the  rules,  "as 
much  as  possible  with  pleasure  and  while  playing"; 
that  "the  ephor," — it  is  thus  he  named  the  preceptor 
of  the  Dilection, —  "should  practice  an  agreeable  Latin 
history"  so  that  the  prince  would  learn  the  history  and 
the  language  at  the  same  time.  The  said  ephor  must 
give  his  lessons  in  Latin,  speak  only  Latin  "in  their 
walks  or  drives,"  and  make  the  prince  learn  by  heart 
aphorisms  taken  from  the  best  authors,  "which  could 
be  used  on  every  occasion." 

Through  this  beautiful  passage,  as  well  as  through 
the  fine  "State  of  the  Court,"  Frederick  William  drew 
a  long  mark  :  "  As  for  the  Latin  language,  my  son  shall 


22  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

not  learn  it."  Reasons  he  did  not  give,  but  as  he 
foresaw  that  he  might  be  questioned,  he  added :  "I  for- 
bid any  one  whomsoever  to  make  remarks  upon  this 
subject." 

The  Instruction  for  1695  treated  wisely  of  the 
stitdium  historicum.  It  recommended  giving  the  most 
time  and  attention  to  the  history  of  modern  times, 
particularly  to  that  of  Brandenburg  and  the  Houses 
allied  to  the  family  of  Prussia,  but  to  commence  also 
with  an  exposition  of  universal  history,  from  the  crea- 
tion of  the  world.  It  is  very  complimentary  to  history, 
''that  study  preferable  to  all  others,  for  it  is  both 
entertaining  and  edifying."  The  Instruction  for  1718 
cancels  these  compliments ;  it  forbids  the  study  of 
" ancient  history"  otherwise  than  a  passing  glance  — 
{fiber  hin)\  "but  the  history  of  our  epoch,  that  is  to 
say,  of  the  last  hundred  and  fifty  years,  should  be 
pointed  out  in  the  most  exact  way,  aufdas  genaueste  .  . 
especially  that  of  the  reigning  House"  .  .  .  For  this 
purpose,  "the  library  and  archives  will  be  open  to  the 
prince."  Frederick  William  greatly  desired  that  history 
should  serve  as  matter  for  reflection  upon  the  cause  of 
events,  and  for  discerning  "that  which  had  been  well 
and  that  which  had  been  badly  done."  But  he  meant 
it  to  be,  above  all,  a  preparation  for  the  very  affairs  in 
which  one  day  the  prince  would  be  occupied.  The 
pupil  would  find  in  previous  history  contained  in  the 
archives,  exact  testimonies  of  a  true  history.  The  king, 
perhaps,  was  hoping  that  his  son  would  show  a  pref- 
erence for  the  parchments  wherein  were  inscribed  the 
rights  of  the  House  with  the    largest  inheritance. 


CHILDHOOD.  23 

The  article  upon  mathematics  pleased  Frederick 
William ;  the  point  at  issue  being,  principally,  military 
mathematics  which  treat  "of  fortifications,  the  form- 
ation of  a  camp  and  other  sciences  of  war."  But  on 
reading  the  passage  again,  he  noticed  this  consideration ; 
that  a  prince  "must  be  instructed,  from  childhood, 
in  the  calling  of  a  general";  he  wrote  "in  the  calling 
of  an  officer  and  general,"  thinking  it  was  not  exactly 
congruous  to  make  a  baby,  all  at  once,  a  general. 
However,  as  the  main  idea  pleased  him  and  it  was, 
according  to  his  notion,  the  essential  one,  he  insisted: 
"They  must  inculcate  in  my  son  the  veritable  love  for 
a  soldier's  life,  impress  him  with  the  idea,  that  noth- 
ing in  the  world  is  more  capable  of  giving  a  prince 
more  glory  than  the  sword ;  that  he  wTould  be  a 
despicable  creature,  on  this  earth,  if  he  did  not  love 
this  sword,  if  he  did  not  seek  in  it  and  through  it 
the  only  glory, —  die  einzige  Gloire." 

The  Instruction  for  1695  prescribed  the  study  of 
the  French  language  by  exercises  and  by  reading 
good  French  books.  Frederick  William  added  it  was 
necessary  "to  see  that  his  son  should  become  accus- 
tomed to  an  elegant,  concise  style,  in  French  as  well 
as  in  German."  Frederick  I.  had  forgotten  to  men- 
tion German.  He  had  also  forgotten  political  economy 
and  constitutional  law,  which  Frederick  William  in- 
troduced in  the  place  left  vacant  by  Latin. 

The  chapter  on  deportment  was  shortened,  as  one 
might  expect.  Frederick  William  consented  that  his 
son  should  be  taught  to  converse  well,  to  turn  a 
gratulatio,  or  harangue  an   army,   in  order  to  excite  it 


24  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

to  vigorous  action,  to  argue  in  Councils,  to  make  a 
summary  of  advices,  and  pass  judgment.  But  he 
suppressed  here  the  word  "eloquence,"  for  it  was 
sufficient  that  his  son  should  learn  to  express  himself 
"clearly  and  purely."  He  crossed  out  a  solemn  dis- 
sertation "on  the  decorum  more  suitable  for  a  reign- 
ing prince  than  for  any  other  human  being,"  upon 
the  proper  ways  of  gaining  obedience  and  love  of 
subjects,  and  the  necessary  intermingling  "of  majesty 
and  humanity."  He  simply  said:  "See  that  my  son 
has  good  morals  and  befitting  deportment,  and  agree- 
able manners,  but  no  pedantry." 

There  is  almost  complete  accord  in  regard  to  physi- 
cal culture,  requiring  careful  gradation,  so  as  never  to 
exceed  the  child's  strength ;  the  same  as  regards  the 
"honest  recreations"  of  the  pupil;  but  Frederick 
William  did  not  wish  these  precautions  to  go  so  far 
as  to  enervate  the  body,  for  it  must  be  inured  to  a 
hard  life.  As  there  was  nothing  he  disliked  more 
than  laziness,  he  ordered  them  to  imbue  the  prince^ 
"with  the  greatest  possible  disgust  for  this  vice,  one 
of  the  worst  of  all  vices." 

He  prescribed  the  most  rigorous  measures  in  regard 
to  the  "frequentations"  of  his  son.  The  preceptors 
must  never  leave  him  alone  ;  one  of  them  must  always 
be  with  him,  even  at  night.  They  should  choose 
with  care  the  prince's  table  companions.  They  must 
submit  to  the  king  the  list  of  persons  that  they  pro- 
pose admitting  to  the  presence  of  his  son.  Concerning 
the  dangers  which  may  arise  at  the  age  of  puberty, 
the    king    said  —  calling  things    by  their  names,  which 


CHILDHOOD.  25 

will  not  bear  repetition  —  "Have  a  care!  for  I  make 
you  both  responsible  with  your  heads." 

To  him,  the  religious  and  moral  education  was 
much  the  most  important.  Here  he  added,  "Develop 
and  form  it  at  the  same  time." 

He  did  not  content  himself  with  a  commonplace 
phrase  upon  the  necessity  of  instructing  his  son  in 
the  fear  of  God,  that  being  the  only  restraint  capable 
of  controlling  princes,  for  whom  the  world  has  neither 
punishment  nor  reward ;  but  he  commanded  that  his 
son  should  be  educated  with  a  horror  of  Atheism, 
Arianism,  Socinianism  and  Catholicism,  these  he  stur- 
dily qualified  as  absurd.  He  defined  the  faith  to 
which  he  wished  the  prince  to  belong.  The  Protest- 
ant church  was  troubled  with  the  quarrels  of  the 
Lutherans  and  Calvinists.  The  ambition  of  a  few 
princes  and  thinkers  like  Leibnitz  was  to  reunite  the 
two  sects;  Frederick  William  passionately  desired  this 
reconciliation.  The  chief  obstacle  was  a  grave  dog- 
matic dissentation;  the  Lutherans  taught  that  salvation 
was  accessible  to  all,  that  Christ  died  for  all ;  the 
Calvinists,  that  God  predestined,  from  the  beginning, 
a  certain  number  of  men  to  be  saved,  and  others  to 
be  damned.  The  Lutherans  were  "Universalists,"  and 
the  Calvinists,  "Particularists."  But  there  were  Uni- 
versalists among  the  Calvinists ;  Frederick  William  was 
of  the  number.  He  had  in  this,  as  in  everything  else, 
simple,  practical  reasons.  He  did  not  care  about  being 
damned  in  advance.  He  understood  that  the  Universal- 
ist-Calvinists  were  nearer  than  the  others  in  consenting 
to  the  wished-for  union.     And  to  sum  up,  the  doctrine 


26  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

of  predestination  appeared  to  him  dangerous  for  the 
State,  because  it  suppressed  the  responsibility  of  the 
subjects.  He  forbade  these  teachers  to  preach  to  the 
soldiers,  for  fear  they  might  believe  themselves  pre- 
destined to  desert  the  ranks,  and  desert  for  that  reason. 
He  wished  then  that  the  prince  should  be  educated  in  the 
true  Christian  religion,  of  which  "the  principal  dogma 
is,  that  Christ  died  for  all  men."  "You  must  not 
make  him  a  Particularism"  said  he ;  "he  must  believe 
in  universal   salvation." 

The  counsels  on  morality  are  also  much  more  prac- 
tical in  the  Instruction  for  1718.  The  king  intended 
that  his  son  should  be  warned  against  certain  extrav- 
agant vanities,  operas,  comedies  and  other  worldly 
amusements  :  "Give  him  a  distaste  for  it !  "  He  forbade 
flattery,  under  penalty  of  incurring  "  his  greatest  dis- 
pleasure." He  commanded  them  to  employ  "every 
means  imaginable"  to  combat  with  pride  and  arrogance. 
They  must  "accustom  the  prince  to  right  management, 
economy,  modesty,  and  have  a  care  that  he  shall  become 
a  good  economist,  and  learn  by  degrees  all  that  is 
necessary  in  order  to  become  so." 

The  corrections  made  by  Frederick  William  in  the 
Instruction  for  1695  rank  him  among  the  pedagogues 
who  desire  to  make  education  a  direct  preparation  for 
a  practical  life.  The  problem  was  fixed  in  his  mind 
thus :  Being  given  a  child  destined  to  the  profession 
of  king,  over  a  certain  country,  Prussia,  and  at  a  given 
'time  in  the  history  of  this  country,  what  must  the 
child  be  taught?  How  to  be  King  of  Prussia,  at 
this  given  time.     Perhaps  in  other  countries,  the  sons 


CHILDHOOD.  27 

of  kings,  the  Dauphins,  the  Princes  of  Wales,  the 
Infantes,  have  the  time  to  study  discourses  upon  univer- 
sal history,  to  learn  Latin,  and  to  seek  aphorisms  in 
the  editions  of  classics  arranged  for  their  use.  It  may 
be  the  proper  thing  to  have  them  drilled  in  fine  man- 
ners ;  to  behave  with  dignity  at  a  small  or  grand  levee 
is  not  a  thing  so  natural  that  a  training  is  not  neces- 
sary for  it,  but,  in  Prussia,  the  king  rises  all  alone, 
to  the  drum  tap,  and  retires  without  ceremony,  after 
having  smoked  his  pipe.  He  is  not  a  potentate  like 
the  Kings  of  England,  France,  or  Spain.  Being  "a 
king  in  trust,"  as  Frederick  William  said,  he  did  not 
belong  to  the  great  in  history,  and  had  nothing  in 
common  with  the  Kings  or  Emperors  of  Assyria,  Egypt 
or  Rome.  Herodotus,  Thucydides,  Titus,  Livy,  Tacitus, 
did  not  know  the  names  of  Pomerania,  Silesia,  Meck- 
lenburg, Juliers,  Berg,  and  other  countries  over  which 
the  "House"  had  rights.  They  were  ignorant  even  of 
the  House  itself.  Of  what  use  can  they  be?  And 
their  language  ?  How  employ  it  in  the  army  or  in 
"economy?" 

A  regiment  is  a  regiment,  not  a  legion  ;  a  gun  is  a 
gun,  not  a  pike ;  a  captain  is  a  captain,  not  a  centurion  ; 
there  is  no  word  for  colonel,  and  neither  these  Greeks 
nor  these  Romans  knew  anything  about  field-marshals. 
All  this  antique  form  is,  then,  cumbersome  in  its  use- 
less ceremony ;  it  weighs  down  and  burdens  the  mind, 
as  the  big  peruke  the  movements  of  the  head  it  over- 
heats and  fatigues.  A  King  of  Prussia  has  need  of  a 
free  mind  and  head.  The  late  Frederick  I.  made  a  mis- 
take in  wishing  to  have  his  crown  prince  educated  like 


28  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

the  son  of  a  classic  king.  He  had  not  meditated  upon 
the  fable  of  the  frog  who  burst  himself  trying  to  get 
bigger.  Hardly  seated  in  his  royal  chair,  than  he 
showed  in  every  way  that  he  was  entirely  satisfied  with 
himself.  He  did  wrong ;  he  should  have  descended 
from  his  throne,  walked,  ridden,  and  worked  in  real 
life.  The  honor  of  being  king  creates  the  duty  of  pos- 
sessing a  true  kingdom,  and  it  is  a  very  weak  presump- 
tion to  believe  that  the  name  suffices,  and  that  one  has 
the  right,  because  one  is  titled  like  Louis  XIV.,  to  wear 
the  same  peruke  as  he.  Then  down  with  the  peruke, 
majesty,  ceremony,  universal  history  and  Latin  dis- 
course. 

The  reform  of  the  Instruction  for  1695  emanates 
from  the  same  source  as  the  Court  reform,  and  leads  to 
the  same  end.  All  that  the  king  judged  useless  he  sup- 
;  pressed.  He  prescribed  for  his  son's  mind  the  simple 
tenor  of  work,  which  should  be  that  of  the  king,  the 
Court  and  all  that  old  monarchy  born  but  yesterday, 
and  which  has  its  fortune  to  make. 

For  these  same  reasons  the  king  took  away  all  cere- 
mony from  the  life  of  the  pupil.  He  himself  had 
been  overwhelmed  with  pedagogical  ceremony.21  In 
1695,  the  day  that  his  preceptor,  Count  Dohna,  was 
installed,  the  Court  assembled  to  listen  to  a  lengthy  dis- 
course by  Fuchs,  the  Minister  of  State:  "The  swad- 
dling clothes  of  an  infant  born  in  the  purple,"  said  he, 
"  inspire  us  always  with  a  secret  veneration,  but  often- 
times they  cover  a  cruel  Busiris  instead  of  a  magnani- 
mous Hercules ;  a  bloody  Domitian  instead  of  a  humane 
and  clement  Titus."     But  Fuchs  quickly  modified  this  : 


CHILDHOOD.  29 

"  There  can  only  come  from  the  glorious  blood  of  Bran- 
denburg and  Brunswick  a  worthy  successor  of  so  many 
illustrious  heroes,  whose  virtues  have  dazzled  the  whole 
universe."  Then,  pointing  to  the  young  prince:  " These 
sparkling  eyes,  full  of  fire,  this  majestic  and  graceful 
bearing,  do  they  not  tell  us  in  advance  that  a  body  so 
well  formed  must  be  animated  by  a  mind  better  still  ? 
This  union  of  body  and  mind  will  combine  in  this 
prince,  some  day,  the  valor  of  a  David,  the  wisdom  of  a 
Solomon,  the  clemency  of  an  Augustus,  the  complais- 
ance of  a  Titus,  so  that  he  may  be  in  his  turn  the  de- 
light of  mankind."  .  .  .  Frederick  William,  no 
doubt,  had  yawned  during  this  fete  of  the  inauguration 
of  his  studies.  He  hated  metaphors.  This  realist  had 
often  spoken  of  the  blue  cloth  of  his  soldiers,  but  never 
of  the  purple. 

He  had  been  constrained  to  submit,  from  time  to 
time,  when  he  was  a  student,  to  examinations  before  the 
assembled  Court,  with  the  king  sitting  upon  his  throne. 

We  have  the  ritual  of  one  of  these  ceremonies,  which 
lasted  two  days.  "  The  first  day,"  according  to  the  pro- 
gram arranged  by  the  ephors,  "His  Royal  Highness 
will  read  from  the  printed  and  written  German,  write 
from  dictation,  solve  a  few  arithmetical  problems,  read 
a  French  book  selected  by  His  Majesty,  and  relate  in 
French  the  moral  and  the  sense  of  a  few  fables.  He 
will  translate,  from  Latin  into  German,  passages  from 
the  Orbis  pictus,  and  from  German  into  Latin,  verses 
from  the  Bible.  He  will  show  what  he  knows  of 
geography,  confining  himself  to  the  map  of  Germany. 
The  second   day  the   prince  will  recite  Latin  sentences, 


30  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

until  His  Majesty  bids  him  cease.  He  will  be  ques- 
tioned upon  an  abridgment  of  profane  and  sacred  histo- 
ry, upon  the  history  of  Brandenburg,  and  the  geography 
of  Germany  in  its  minutest  details  ;  area  of  the  country, 
latitude  and  longitude,  rivers,  provinces,  principal  cities  ; 
the  immediate  States  of  the  Empire,  with  the  extent  of 
their  territories ;  division  of  the  Empire  into  circles, 
with  their  governors,  etc."  The  program  furthermore 
added  that  it  was  not  necessary  to  mention  the  prayers, 
passages  of  Holy  Scripture,  Psalms  and  sacred  hymns, 
as  well  as  much  other  knowledge  that  had  nourished  the 
soul  and  formed  the  heart  of  His  Royal  Highness. 
They  likewise  made  no  mention  of  the  military  exer- 
cises, horsemanship,  dancing,  the  harpsichord,  the  flute, 
everyone  knowing  that  in  these  things  His  Highness 
was  very  proficient. 

These  examinations  had,  doubtless,  been  insupport- 
able to  the  prince.  He  acquitted  himself  well  enough,  it 
seems,  since  the  king  rewarded  him  several  times,  count- 
ing out  to  him  some  bright  ducats;  but  it  is  probable 
that  the  ephors  added  some  of  their  own,  and  contrived 
to  make  His  Highness  shine.  They  had  an  eye  to  their 
own  fame  and  interest.  At  the  end  of  the  program,  in 
post-scriptum,  they  implored  the  blessing  of  God  and 
the  gracious  continuation  of  the  confidence  of  their 
Majesties.  They  give  themselves  the  credit  of  the  sus- 
cess  attained,  in  saying  that  "His  Royal  Highness,  fol- 
lowing the  ordinary  run  of  minds  which  promise  much 
of  judgment  and  solidity,  had  difficulty  in  learning." 
All  this  savored  strong  of  the  Court  comedy.  Freder- 
ick William  replaced  this  ceremonial  by  weekly  recapit- 


CHILDHOOD.  31 

ulations.  Saturday  morning  the  prince  was  questioned 
upon  the  work  of  the  week.  If  he  had  "profited,"  he 
was  at  liberty  for  the  afternoon.  If  not,  he  had  to  go 
over  again,  during  a  study  of  four  hours,  that  which  he 
did  not  know. 

The  King  of  Prussia  was  accustomed  to  leave  nothing 
to  chance,  and  had  the  gift  of  seeing  in  everything 
the  detail  in  its  exact  order  ;  his  greatest  pleasure  was 
to  draw  up  regulations.  Thus  he  methodized,  minute 
by  minute,  the  occupation  of  his  son's  days. 22 

Sundays  the  prince  must  rise  at  7  a.  m.  As  soon  as 
he  puts  his  slippers  on  he  must  kneel  by  his  bed  and 
recite  this  prayer  aloud:  "Lord  God,  Holy  Father,  I 
heartily  thank  Thee  for  having  mercifully  preserved  me 
through  this  niglit.  In  the  name  of  Jesus,  my  Savior, 
make  me  obedient  to  Thy  Holy  Will,  and  keep  me 
from  committing,  either  to-day  or  ever,  an  action  that 
will  separate  me  from  Thee.  Amen."  The  prayer  said, 
the  prince,  quickly,  hurriedly  (geschwind,  hurtig)  must 
bathe,  powder  and  dress  himself.  For  the  prayer  and 
toilet  he  must  employ  an  exact  quarter  of  an  hour.  He 
must  breakfast  in  seven  minutes.  Then  the  preceptor 
and  all  the  domestics  shall  enter.  All  must  kneel  and 
recite  the  Lord's  Prayer ;  they  must  listen  to  a  reading 
from  the  Bible  and  sing  a  hymn.  For  this,  twenty- 
three  minutes.  The  preceptor  must  read,  immediately 
after,  the  Gospel  for  Sunday,  discourse  upon  it,  and 
make  the  prince  recite  the  Catechism.  The  prince  must 
then  be  conducted  to  the  king,  with  whom  he  will  at- 
tend church  and  dine.  The  rest  of  the  day  is  at  his 
own  disposal.     At   9:30   p.  m.  he    must  bid    his   father 


32  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

good-night,  enter  his  own  apartments,  undress  hastily 
(geschioind),  and  wash  his  hands.  The  preceptor  shall 
read  a  prayer  and  sing  a  hymn ;  the  prince  must  be  in 
bed  by  10:30  p.  m. 

During  the  week,  rise  at  6  o'clock.  The  prince 
must  not  turn  over  in  bed.  He  shall  rise  immediately 
(sof/leich),  kneel  and  say  the  little  prayer ;  then  quickly 
(geschwind)  put  on  his  shoes,  and  bathe  his  face  and 
hands,  but  without  using  soap ;  he  shall  dress  in  his 
jacket  and  have  his  hair  combed,  but  not  powdered. 
While  they  comb  his  hair,  he  must  drink  his  tea  or 
coffee.  At  6:30  o'clock  the  preceptor  and  domestics 
shall  enter;  reading  of  the  Lord's  Prayer  and  a  chapter 
in  the  Bible ;  then  the  singing  of  a  hymn.  After- 
ward shall  follow  the  lessons,  to  be  continued  from  seven 
until  a  quarter  to  eleven.  Then  the  prince  must 
hurriedly  (c/eschwind)  bathe  his  face  and  hands,  using 
soap  for  the  hands  only.  He  must  be  powdered  and 
put  on  his  coat,  then  enter  the  king's  presence,  there 
to  remain  from  eleven  until  two  o'clock.  After  this, 
the  lessons  must  be  resumed  to  be  continued  until  5 
o'clock.  The  prince  may  then  dispose  of  his  time  as 
he  pleases  until  the  hour  for  retiring,  "provided  he 
does  nothing  contrary  to  the  will  of  God."  The 
program  ends  with  a  last  injunction  to  dress  quickly, 
and  always  keep  himself  clean, —  "dass  er  propre  und 
reinlich  werde." 

Thus,  the  king  had  foreseen  everything,  ordered 
everything,  from  the  manner  of  washing  his  hands,  to 
the  form  of  his  belief,  disregarding  entirely  the  method 
of    cultivating  the    mind.        He    desired    that    his    son 


CHILDHOOD.  33 

should  be  like  him  in  everything, — exact,  diligent, 
prompt,  practical,  devout,  and  soldierly.  He  loved  his 
boy.  He  used  familiar  expressions  in  speaking  of 
him:  "The  rest  of  the  day  shall  be  for  Fritz, —  vor 
Fritzen."  He  wished  his  son  to  love  him.  He,  him- 
self, as  a  child,  unquestionably  had  suffered  much 
from  the  ceremonious  reserve  by  which  he  was  sepa- 
rated from  his  father,  whom  he  greatly  feared.  He 
forbade  them  to  inspire  Fritz  with  any  feeling  of  fear 
in  regard  to  him.  Of  course,  his  son  must  be  sub- 
missive, but  not  servile  —  (sklavisch).  The  most  impor- 
tant thing  was,  that  the  child  should  have  confidence 
in  his  father,  and  look  upon  him  as  his  best  friend. 
In  a  first  correction  of  the  Instruction  for  1718,  the 
king  had  written,  in  order  to  define  the  kind  of  affec- 
tion he  desired,  the  words  "Fraternal  love."23  He  con- 
sented to  have  his  son  stand  in  awe  of  his  mother,  but 
not  of  him :  "Make  him  fear  his  mother  but  not  me." 
And  he  was  convinced  that  all  was  for  the  best,  in 
the  best  of  possible  educations.  In  all  good  faith,  he 
believed  that  a  mind  could  be  maneuvered  like  a 
regiment,  and  that  a  soul  would  yield  itself  to  cultiva- 
tion at  will,  just  as  an  estate  is  worked  for  its  products. 

THE  GERMS  OF  CONFLICT  BETWEEN  FATHER  AND  SON. 

Those  who  had  known  Frederick  William  as  a  child, 
Mme.  de  Rocoulle,  for  instance,  must  have  been  sur- 
prised to  find  how  slight  was  the  resemblance  between 
Fritz  and  his  father.  When  Frederick  William  came 
into  the  world  he  was  very  robust.  His  grandmother, 
the   Electress    of    Hanover,  who   was   in   Berlin  at   the 


34  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

time  of  his  birth,  admired  the  strong  structure  of  his 
limbs.  From  the  age  of  four,  he  was  a  formidable 
youngster.  One  day,  while  they  were  dressing  him,  he 
tore  a  buckle  from  his  shoe,  and  put  it  into  his  mouth. 
When  they  wished  to  take  it  away  from  him,  he  swal- 
lowed it.  His  mother  uttered  cries  that  would  have 
"melted  rocks";  his  father,  majestic  as  he  was,  came 
near  losing  his  senses.  The  physicians,  however,  pre- 
scribed a  purgative  and  the  buckle  is  on  exhibition  in  a 
glass  case,  at  the  Hohenzollern  Museum,  in  Berlin. 
In  growing  up,  he  acquired  a  taste  for  malicious  pranks, 
some  of  which  I  have  already  related.  He  was  ex- 
tremely brutal.  They  had  to  bring  him  back  from  his 
grandparents  of  Hanover,  where  he  had  been  visiting, 
for  while  there  he  had  unmercifully  beaten  his  cousin, 
the  future  George  II.  of  England.  He  detested  this 
cousin  all  his  life.  One  day,  they  had  to  tear  him 
away  by  force  from  the  Prince  of  Courlande,  whom 
he  held  by  the  hair.  He  did  not  have  one  good  quality, 
nor  the  least  coquetry  of  a  child  who  desired  to  please. 
He  fled  from  ladies,  blushed,  when  out  of  respect  they 
kissed  his  hands,  and,  when  he  had  to  speak  to  them, 
he  never  said  anything  agreeable,  to  the  great  despair 
of  Sophia  Charlotte,  who  had  found  that  "affection 
refines  the  mind  and  polishes  the  manners."  He  was 
a  coarse  little  savage. 2i 

"Little  Fritz,"  said  his  sister  Wilhelmina,  "had  a 
very  weak  constitution.  His  taciturn  humor  and  lack 
of  animation  gave  just  cause  of  fear  for  his  life."  He 
had  several  diseases  during  his  infancy ;  he  became 
stronger  as  he  grew  up,  but  always  looked  very  delicate, 


CHILDHOOD.  35 

with  an  air  of  sadness  about  him,  thinking  a  long 
while  before  answering.  He  was  moreover,  an  amiable 
child,  earnestly  beloved  by  the  household,  and,  with 
the  exception  of  some  little  temper,  had  an  "  angelic 
disposition."  Wilhelmina  tells  us  that  he  learned 
slowly,  but  that  signified  unquestionably  that  certain 
things  were  distasteful  to  him,  or  that  he  had  the  dis- 
tractions of  a  youthful  mind  that  regarded  other  things 
through  natural  preference.  Other  witnesses  eulogized 
his  good  qualities,  and  the  incredible  facility  he  had 
of  learning  everything  he  wished  to  learn.  He  adored 
his  sister  Wilhelmina,  his  elder  by  nearly  three  years, 
whose  precocity  everybody  praised,  for  she  had  all 
the  manners  of  a  full-grown  young  lady ;  she  was 
lively  and  sensible,  and  loved  her  brother.  "My  only 
diversion  was  to  see  my  brother.  No  attachment  ever 
equaled  ours."25  They  were  both  pretty;  Pesne  has 
painted  them  together  :  Fritz  (who  was  about  five  years 
old)  is  in  a  low-necked  velvet  dress,  with  the  Grand 
Cordon  and  Star  of  the  Black  Eagle ;  he  wears  a  hat 
with  a  long  plume.  His  right  hand  holds  a  drum- 
stick, and  is  raised  with  a  gesture  which  signifies : 
Forward !  He  looks  at  his  sister  as  though  to  urge  her 
to  advance.  Wilhelmina  wears  over  her  dress  of  a 
Marchioness  a  la  Watteau,  a  velvet  mantle  with  a  long 
train.  She  looks  you  in  the  face ;  one  hand  gathers 
up  a  loose  bunch  of  flowers  in  the  fold  of  her  mantle  ; 
the  other,  resting  upon  the  drum,  stays  the  hand  of 
Fritz  from  beating  it.  She  is  truly  the  big  sister  who 
guides  the  little  brother.  From  both  heads  fall  blonde 
curls.     Fritz  has  a  firmer  chin,  but  if  their  clothes  were 


36  FREDERICK   THE    GREAT. 

exchanged,  it   would  be   difficult  to   tell   the  boy  from 
the  girl. 

There  was  then  in  Fritz  a  delicacy,  a  fine  distinction 
of  nature,  which  his  father  did  not  foresee,  and  which 
he  never  saw,  perhaps.  However,  the  Crown  Prince 
only  gave  at  first,  cause  for  contentment  to  the  king. 
He  played  soldier  very  well.  He  was  barely  six  years 
old  when  his  father  organized  for  him  a  "company  of 
Crown  Prince  Cadets,"  composed  of  one  hundred  and 
thirty-one  children,  selected  from  several  cadet  schools. 
The  effective  force  was  increased  little  by  little  ;  the 
company  became  the  "Crown-Prince-Royal-Battalion  of 
Cadets."  This  was  a  nursery  of  future  heroes  for  the 
wars  of  the  great  reign  ;  they  had  sowed  in  it  nothing 
but  the  best  grain  ;  squires,  sons  of  squires  ;  soldiers, 
sons  of  soldiers.  These  pigmies  composed,  in  minia- 
ture, a  model  troop.  They  learned  the  art  of  renounc- 
ing all  personal  movement,  to  assimilate  themselves 
into  this  toy  machine  accurately  and  neatly,  and  to 
make  their  little  maneuvers  in  perfect  unison.  Fritz 
first  drilled  in  the  ranks,  commanded  by  Instructor 
Rentzell,  a  big  boy  of  seventeen.  Afterward  he  himself 
commanded.  He  had  the  honor  of  being  reviewed 
by  Czar  Peter  and  by  his  grandfather,  the  King  of 
England,  who  admired  him  very  much.  In  1721  the 
king  gave  him  for  his  birthday  present  a  little  arsenal, 
installed  in  one  of  the  rooms  of  the  palace  at  Berlin. 

"  Dites  que  mon  berceau  f ut  environne  d'  armes  " 
(Say  that  my  cradle  was  surrounded  by  arms), 

wrote  Frederick  later.     The  father,  in  fact,  had  placed 

them  everywhere. 


CHILDHOOD.  37 

It  seemed  that  Fritz  had  made  an  effort  to  be  agree- 
able in  everything  to  his  father.  We  have  the  letters 
that  he  wrote  then:  For  the  first,  which  was  in  1717, 
his  hand  was  guided ;  he  wrote  the  second  all  alone,  for 
which  reason  he  begs  the  king  to  keep  it  as  a  souvenir. 

It  is  a  pretty  communication  of  a  little  officer.  The 
prince  submits  "the  list"  of  his  company  of  cadets. 
He  returns  thanks  for  a  new  cadet  who  has  been  sent  to 
him ;  he  hopes  that  this  recruit  will  soon  grow  up  and 
take  a  place  one  day  in  the  famous  battalion,  in  which 
Frederick  William  admitted  none  but  giants.  He  gives 
a  report  of  his  company,  which  had  executed  the  ma- 
neuvers so  well  and  "made  such  good  shots  that  it 
was  impossible  to  do  better"  ;  for  this  success  he  gave 
them  a  tun  of  beer.  That  must  have  gone  straight  to 
the  king's  heart.26  The  "dear  papa,"  who  was  a  great 
hunter,  was  to  learn  also  with  joy  that  his  son  had 
killed  a  hare  and  shot  his  first  partridge.  But  the  fol- 
lowing must  have  given  him  more  pleasure  than  all. 
In  1720  Fritz  composed  in  French  a  little  piece  entitled: 
"The  Way  the  Prince  of  a  Great  House  Should  Live."27 

"He  must  be  noble-hearted,  belong  to  the  Reformed 
religion,  fear  God  in  a  certain  way,  not  like  people  who 
do  it  for  money,  or  for  the  world.  He  must  love  his 
father  and  mother  ;  he  must  be  grateful. 

1 '  He  must  love  God  with  all  his  heart,  for,  when  one 
loves  Him,  one  does  everything  to  please  Him. 
He  must  not  make  long  prayers,  like  the  Pharisees,  but 
(un  petit)  a  little  one.  He  must  thank  Jesus  Christ  for 
His  kindness  in  crucifying  Himself  for  us,  poor  sinners. 
He  must  never  renounce  the  Reformed  religion,  and  in  his 


38  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

illnesses  consider  that  God  has  sent  them  to  us,  to  re- 
mind us  that  we  are  sinners;  and  we  must  not  think,  I  am 
not  sick,  I  can  vanquish  God,  for  it  is  necessary  always  to 
think,  I  am  a  sinner.  He  must  not  love  a  thing  too  much, 
he  must  be  obliging,  civil,  speak  with  all  men.  When  one 
knows  how  to  do  well  and  does  not  do  so,  this  is  a  sin. 
He  must  act  as  it  is  in  the  Ten  Commandments,  not  to 
steal,  to  keep  one's  self  pure,  and  to  think  always,  all 
that  I  do  well  comes  from  God.  He  must  never  think 
evil ;  all  evil  that  comes  into  the  mind  comes  from  the 
devil.  He  must  think  of  the  passage  of  Scripture  that 
says  :  '  Be  sober,  be  vigilant ;  because  your  adversary 
the  devil,  as  a  roaring  lion,  walketh  about,  seeking  whom 
he  may  devour  ;  whom  resist  steadfast  in  the  faith.' 
"  Oct.  4,  1720.  Friedrich." 

"  Note  well,"  said  Kalkstein,  concerning  this  compo- 
sition, of  which  he  had  made  a  copy  from  the  original, 
"that  H.  R.  H.  the  Crown  Prince  of  Prussia,  wrote 
this  on  the  morning  of  the  4th  of  October,  according  to 
his  own  impulse  and  without  having  communicated  this 
design  to  anyone  whomsoever,  at  the  age  of  eight  years, 
eight  months  and  eleven  days."28  He  assures  us  that  he 
had  "neither  added  to  nor  taken  out  a  single  letter." 
However,  he  must  have  at  least  corrected  the  orthogra- 
phy, for  the  prince,  a  long  time  after  this  date,  spelled 
in  such  a  way  that  it  was  difficult,  at  first  reading,  to 
comprehend  his  meaning.  It  is  evident,  besides,  that 
the  child  only  repeated  his  lessons  of  religious  in- 
struction, and  probably  word  for  word.  It  is  a  curious 
thing,  however,  that  the  first  writing  of  Frederick  the 
Great  should  have  been  this  :   "  The  Way  the  Prince  of 


CHILDHOOD.  39 

a  Great  House  Should  Live."  "May  God,"  said  Kalk- 
stein,  "confirm  him  in  these  pious  sentiments,  that  are 
truly  beyond  his  age."  This  also  was  the  cherished  wish 
of  King  Frederick  William. 

Meanwhile,  during  the  daily  lessons,  in  the  tete-a-tetes 
with  Duhan,  little  by  little,  without  anyone  perceiving 
it,  a  work  was  going  on,  entirely  different  from  these 
exercises  of  the  little  soldier  and  young  Christian.  The 
education  of  the  prince  overstepped  the  limits  the  king 
prescribed.  Duhan  did  not  deliberately  disobey  the  in- 
structions that  he  received ;  but,  in  spite  of  himself,  he 
amended,  retrenched,  and  added.  He  corrected  the  let- 
ter by  the  spirit.  The  king,  as  soon  as  he  perceived 
this,  tried  to  bring  Duhan  back  to  the  letter.  He  had 
ordered  that  Fritz  should  learn  history  from  the  Theatrum 
JEuropceiim,  a  collection  of  volumes  in  folio,  with  maps, 
plans,  illustrations,  where  the  facts  were  enumerated 
year  by  year,  from  1617.  This  was  a  repertory  enor- 
mous and  indigestible.  Duhan  arranged  it  so  that  the. 
prince  should  not  lose  himself  in  it.  "I  purpose,"  said 
he  in  a  note  to  the  king,  "to  spare  His  Royal  Highness 
the  trouble  of  reading  this  long  work,  by  gathering  up 
for  him  the  most  remarkable  events,  according  to  the 
exact  order  of  the  book."  The  king  wrote  on  the  margin, 
"All  the  events"  Duhan  added  that  he  would  put  the 
prince  "  in  a  way  to  reason  upon  the  events  every  time 
the  king  would  notify  him  to  do  so.  However,  His 
Highness  had  no  need  of  learning  anything  by  heart, 
unless  it  was  the  names  of  the  most  celebrated  persons, 
the  principal  battles,  sieges  and  summaries  of  the 
treaties    of  peace."     In   a  marginal   note  the    king    re- 


40  FREDERICK   THE    GREAT. 

plied:  "  He  must  learn  by  heart,  for  that  will  form 
his  memory."  29 

Propositions  and  responses  show  the  conflict  of  the 
two  minds ;  the  king  did  not  care  about  general  consid- 
erations ;  the  philosophy  of  history  was  not  to  his  taste. 
He  desired  facts,  facts,  and  facts  only.  But,  if  the 
preceptor  had  obeyed  the  king,  the  prince  would  have 
had  to  learn  two  or  three  volumes  in  folio  each  year. 
Duhan  certainly  did  not  put  him  to  this  torture. 

The  preceptor  ended  his  note  by  saying  that  it  would 
be  well  to  repeat  from  time  to  time  an  outline  of  the 
history  of  Brandenburg.  "Good,"  wrote  the  king; 
"but  the  history  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans  must  be 
abolished  ;  they  serve  no  purpose. "  Here  it  was  in  vain 
for  the  master  to  desire  not  to  disobey  the  king ;  the 
sacrifice  of  antiquity  was  beyond  his  strength.  To-day, 
we  who  have  lived  a  century  longer,  a  century  sur- 
charged with  events,  ideas  and  sentiments,  more  potent 
than  all,  a  century  which  has  regenerated  the  opinions 
of  man  upon  himself  and  upon  all  matter ;  we  who  feel 
clearly  that  one  destiny  ends  and  another  begins,  that 
the  present  gives  birth  to  the  future,  have  no  longer  the 
leisure  to  look  into  the  past.  Antiquity  will  keep  the 
graces  of  its  arts  and  the  charm  of  its  eternal  and  simple 
wisdom  some  time  yet  for  the  initiated,  then  it  will 
vanish  into  oblivion.  A  hundred  years  ago  it  was  the 
light  of  the  world.  All  cultivated  men  fed  their  intellect 
upon  it.  It  was  there  they  found  the  perfection  of  form 
and  thought,  the  types  of  virtue  and  vice,  the  expressions 
of  joy  and  sorrow ;  the  morale  of  the  "  honest  man,"  as 
they  said,   was   a   reminiscence ;  a   maxim,   a   citation. 


CHILDHOOD.  41 

The  envious  was  called  Zoilus  ;  the  ugly,  Thersites ;  the 
triumphant  hero,  Achilles ;  the  unsuccessful  hero,  Hec- 
tor. Marathon  and  Zama  were  the  combats  of  yesterday; 
Pythagoras,  Solon,  Numa,  inimitable  models  of  law- 
makers. Classical  Mythology  was  reduced  to  one  of  a 
thousand  human  ways  of  expressing  the  thoughts  and 
dreams  of  men ;  not  the  best,  nor  yet  the  most  pro- 
found. Scholars  as  well  as  poets  reveled  in  it,  familiar 
with  all  its  ideality  and  its  pretty  detours. 

Not  to  make  his  prince  acquainted  with  the  Greeks 
and  Romans  was,  of  course,  impossible  to  Duhan,  utterly 
impossible.  The  classics,  consequently,  often  became 
the  topic  of  conversation  between  tutor  and  pupil.  Du- 
han's  most  plausible  pretext  was,  perhaps,  the  reading  of 
Telemachus. 30  Frederick  William  had  no  objection  to 
this.  When  a  child,  he  had  read  this  book  with  his 
mother,  who  explained  it  to  him.  Sophia  Charlotte 
thought  to  find  in  the  study  of  this  calm  work,  so  deeply 
imprinted  with  Hellenic  serenity,  a  means  of  polish- 
ing her  savage  boy.  She  would  walk  with  her  son, 
in  the  park  at  Charlottenburg,  Telemachus  in  hand ; 
read,  explain,  and  question.  She  even  wrote  out  her 
questions  and  Frederick  William's  answers.  He  spoke 
like  a  sage  of  Sesostris,  of  Pygmalion,  the  good  Min- 
ister Narbas,  the  bad  Minister  Metophis,  and  expressed 
his  admiration  for  Telemachus'  strength  in  fleeing  from 
the  beautiful  Eucharis.  This  edifying  dialogue  between 
mother  and  son  prefaced  the  edition  of  Fenelon  that 
Duhan  and  Frederick  read  together.  Now  Telemachus 
is  a  hero,  exalted  to  virtue  and  glory,  according  to 
the   maxims    of   ancient    wisdom.       This   reading  must 


42  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

have  transported  the  imagination  of  Fritz  far  from 
the  Spree  and  Havel,  his  company  of  cadets,  giant 
recruits,  and  the  history  of  Brandenburg,  Brunswick 
and   Hesse. 

It  is  very  difficult  to  study  antiquity  without  know- 
ing the  ancient  languages.  Duhan  tried,  they  say, 
to  scheme.  A  royal  prince,  heir  to  an  electorate,  must 
read  the  Golden  Bull,  which  was  one  of  the  consti- 
tutions of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire  of  the  Germanic 
nation.  It  showed  the  privileges  of  the  Seignior  Elec- 
tors ;  the  places  assigned  to  them  in  the  imperial 
cortege ;  in  the  imperial  sittings  ;  in  the  festive  hall, 
where  the  Emperor  dined,  crown  on  head;  and,  upon 
this  basis  of  ceremonies,  was  painted  in  relief  the 
anarchy  of  old  Germany.  Duhan  contrived  to  have 
this  venerable  document  explained  to  the  prince.  He 
imposed  this  duty  upon  an  assistant  teacher,  but  as 
ill  luck  would  have  it,  the  king  entered  his  son's  apart- 
ments, during  the  course  of  one  of  the  lessons  :  < '  What 
are  you  doing,  there,  you  rascal  ? "  he  demanded  of 
the  teacher.  "Your  Majesty,"  responded  the  poor 
man,  "I  am  explaining  to  his  Highness  the  Golden 
Bull."  "Just  wait,"  replied  Frederick  William,  "I 
will  Golden  Bull  you,"  and  he  raised  his  cane.  Thus 
ended  the  instruction  in  Latin.  Fritz  however  secretly 
learned  a  few  of  the  elementary  principles,  which  enabled 
him  later  to  make  some  very  queer  citations,  it  is 
true;  for,  by  the  side  of:  O  temporal  O  mores!  and 
Dominus  vobiscum,  which  are  correct,  we  find,  in  his 
collection  of  aphorisms,  a  Meatus  pauperes  spiritus, 
a   Compille   intrare,    a  De  gustibus  non  est  disputandus. 


CHILDHOOD.  43 

which  proves,  according  to  Frederick  William,  that 
in  order  to  learn  how  to  reign  and  conquer,  Latin  is 
not  necessary. 

Frederick  read  in  translations  the  masterpieces  of 
classic  antiquity,  for  he  was  a  great  reader.  He  said 
later  that,  his  sister  Wilhelmina  having  made  him 
i ' ashamed  to  neglect  his  talents,  he  set  himself  to 
reading."  He  commenced  with  romances  :  " I  obtained 
Pierre  de  Province  (this  was  a  Provencal  romance  trans- 
lated into  French).  They  would  not  have  consented 
for  me  to  read  it ;  I  hid  the  book,  and,  when  my  pre- 
ceptor, General  Fink,  and  my  valet  slept,  I  went  into 
another  room,  where  I  found  a  lamp  in  the  chimney. 
I  crouched  down,  and  read."31  Behold  a  pretty  scene  of 
a  child  reader,  wherein  is  revealed  one  of  Frederick's 
ruling  passions  which  gave  him  so  much  pleasure,  and 
even  whiled  away  his  greatest  hours  of  tribulation. 
But  in  this  way  the  child  learned  to  taste  forbidden 
fruit.  At  the  hour  when  he  was  reading,  the  order 
was  to  sleep.  The  king  would  not  have  permitted  this 
infraction  of  discipline,  no  matter  if  the  secret  read- 
ing had   been  that  of  the  Theatrum  PJuropceum. 

He  wTould  have  forbidden  many  other  things  besides, 
if  he  had  known  of  them.  He  did  not  see  expanding 
in  his  son's  mind  an  ideal  totally  different  from  the 
"practical"  that  he  intended  to  impose,  neither  the 
growing  pleasure  of  secret  disobedience,  contradiction 
and  opposition.  One  fine  day  however,  all  kinds  of 
vague  indications  of  a  manner  of  living,  displeasing 
to  him,  will  open  up  before  his  eyes.  He  will  ask 
himself,  "What    is   going    on    in    this    little    brain?" 


44  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

Accordingly  as  he  divines  what  is  "going  on,"  he 
will  become  disturbed,  enraged;  —  in  the  end,  he  will 
rejoice. 

Before  relating  the  quarrel  between  father  and  son, 
we  must  become  well  acquainted  with  the  personality 
of  Frederick  William,  of  which  we  have  just  caught 
a  glimpse.  Let  us  see  him  in  the  State,  in  his  family, 
and  in  the  familiarity  of  daily  intercourse.  In  this 
wise,  we  shall  begin  to  discover  the  cause  and  character 
of  a  conflict,  where  the  Crown  Prince,  vanquished  by 
his  father,  learned  that  he  was  born,  not  for  letters, 
but  for  action  and  command. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE   FATHER   OF   FREDERICK  THE  GREAT THE   IDEAS 

AND  MODES  OF  GOVERNMENT  OF  FREDERICK  WILLIAM. 

XpREDERICK  WILLIAM  had  but  few  ideas,  and 
-*-  so  simple  were  they  that  nothing  more  could 
be  added;  to  wit :  "A  king  needs  to  be  strong;  in 
order  to  be  strong,  he  must  have  a  good  army ;  in  order 
to  maintain  a  good  army,  he  must  pay  it ;  in  order  to 
pay  it,  he  must  raise  the  money."  Outside  of  this  he  had 
a  unique  and  original  conception  of  his  functions  ;  he 
considered  the  King  of  Prussia  an  ideal  and  perpetual 
being,  of  whom  he,  Frederick  William,  was  but  the 
servant:  "I  am,"  said  he,  "the  General-in-Chief  and 
the  Minister  of  Finance  of  the  King  of  Prussia."  This 
mystic  conception  of  his  office  had  this  very  practical 
result ;  viz. :  he  did  not  believe  himself  authorized  to 
enjoy  royalty  ;  he  administered  it  in  his  master's  behalf. 
All  his  life  he  worked  under  the  eye  of  this  master, 
whom  he  knew  to  be  redoubtable. 

Prussia  was  not  a  nation.  It  was  a  union  of  territo- 
ries, separated  from  one  another,  spreading  from  the 
Rhine  to  the  Vistula,  from  the  Baltic  toward  the 
mountains  of  Bohemia,  having  neither  the  same  memo- 
rials nor  the  same  customs,  united  by  the  result  of  a  few 
marriages  and  the  fortuity  of  a  few  deaths.  It  is  true 
that  this  union  had  been  in  existence  and  these  countries 

45 


46  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

under  a  common  ruler  for  a  century.  The  predecessors 
of  Frederick  William  had  destroyed  provincial  liberties 
in  the  Rhine  countries,  as  well  as  in  Brandenburg  and 
Prussia.  There  remained  very  little  for  him  to  do  in 
order  to  establish  his  sovereignty  (the  word  is  his)  "like 
a  rock  of  bronze, —  wie  einen  Hocher  von  Bronce"  But 
he  ruled  over  a  species  of  inert  matter.  His  subjects 
had  no  zeal  for  any  public  undertaking,  of  which  they 
had  not  even  a  conception  ;  that  rested  in  the  king  aloner** 
The  future  of  Prussia  was  in  the  mind  and  will  of  the  m 
Sovereign.  ^ 

Frederick  William  made  this  mind  and  this  will  felt 
everywhere.  It  is  always  in  action,  on  the  scene,  to  the 
front.  It  is  not  an  institution  that  operates  ;  it  is  a 
person  in  flesh  and  blood,  fashioned  in  a  certain  mold, 
whose  voice  we  hear  and  whose  hand  we  feel,  a  hand 
armed  with  the  sword  of  justice  on  great  occasions,  and 
a  stick  on  minor  ones.  This  character,  so  "personnel," 
lives  not  in  the  abstract.  For  him,  the  ministry,  the 
administration,  the  army,  are  definite  individuals,  minis- 
ters, counselors,  officers,  that  go  by  such  and  such 
names,  and  must  do  such  and  such  things.  The  royal 
domain  is  composed  of  estates  of  such  a  quality  or  of 
such  a  defect,  situated  in  such  a  place,  for  which  the 
farmer,  Jack  or  Peter,  pays  or  does  not  pay  his  rent. 
Without  interposition  of  general  ideas,  of  acquired  cus- 
toms, of  wheel-work  that  turns  for  the  pleasure  of  turn- 
ing, of  means  to  produce  ends ;  without  restraint  of 
decorum,  of  majesty,  of  velvet,  of  silk  gloves  that  pre- 
vent the  hand  from  touching  the  pie,  Frederick  William 
attacks  the  practical  and  manipulates  the  concrete. 


THE    FATHER.  47 

His  father  left  him  an  army  of  some  thirty  odd 
thousand  men.  It  was  a  suitable  number,  rather  large 
even,  for  a  kingdom  that  had  only  two  million  subjects. 
He  wished  to  have  at  least  eighty  thousand  soldiers. 
His  father,  his  grandfather,  all  his  predecessors  had 
received  foreign  subsidies ;  they  had  taken  money  of 
all  effigies,  louis,  sterlings,  and  florins :  he,  however, 
made  it  a  point  of  honor  to  pay  his  expenses,  only 
n  money  duly  and  rightfully  gained  by  him.  So  it 
ecame  necessary  to  improve  the  kingdom  in  such 
that  it  would  bring  forth  more  each  year.  To 
e  "a  surplus,"  as  he  said  again  and  again, —  ein 
^  machen,  everything  depends  upon  that:  "Whoever 
\y$™)£  disposal  of  ready  cash  commands  both  the 
civil  and  military  service,  and  by  augmentation  gains 
the   respect   and  the  admiration  of  the  world." 

His  whole  principle  of  government,32  his  whole  manner 
of  living  is  shown  in  a  decree,  which  should  be 
placed  among  the  great  documents  of  history,  for 
it  has  produced  results,  or  rather,  a  single  result — the 
power  of  Prussia.  He  composed  this  decree  about 
the  last  of  December,  1722,  after  a  retreat  to  a  hunt- 
ing lodge.  For  a  long  time  the  king  was  discontented 
with  the  general  system  of  administration.  The  State 
had,  at  that  time,  her  chief  revenues  from  two  different 
sources:  First,  revenues  domanial,  which  comprised 
tillable  lands  belonging  to  the  crown,  products  of  the 
forests,  mines,  salt-works,  posts,  customs,  rights  of 
transit  and  stamp-duty ;  second,  war  revenues,  of  which 
the  principal  ones  were  the  contribution,  direct  impost 
levied  upon  the  low  countries,  and  the  excise,  indirect 


48  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT; 

impost,  collected  in  the  cities.  The  war  revenues  were 
controlled  in  the  provinces  by  assemblies  called  War 
Commissariats,  which  reported  to  the  General  Com- 
missariat of  War ;  and  it  reported  to  the  Chamber  of 
Administration  which  was  controlled  by  the  General 
Directory  of  Finances.  These  two  Administrations 
had  a  hundred  occasions  of  contradicting  each  other, 
and  they  never  allowed  a  single  one  to  pass.  They 
were  constantly  at  law ;  a  press  of  affairs  was  sus- 
pended, and  the  king,  in  the  confusion  of  these  chican- 
eries, could  not  find  out  the  exact  state  of  his  finances, 
by  which  he  wished  to  regulate  the  expense  of  his 
army.  He  resolved  to  unite  these  opposing  bodies, 
and  to  teach   them,  in  clear  terms,  their   duty. 

For  several  days,  he  reflected,  in  his  retreat  at 
Schonebeck :  then,  taking  up  a  pen,  he  wrote  a  first 
plan  of  instruction.  He  applied  himself  vigorously, 
taking  a  pride  in  doing  it  so  well,  that  no  one  could 
counsel  him  to  add  the  least  thing.  He  then  set 
out  for  Potsdam,  where  he  had  one  of  his  secretaries, 
Thulemeier,  called,  and  ordered  him  to  make  a  copy 
of  his  manuscript:  "  Come  to-morrow,"  said  he,  "with 
some  strong  paper,  and  some  black  cord  mixed  with 
silver.  We  will  have  two  days  work  on  it."  But 
the  two  days  did  not  suffice ;  the  king  dictated,  then 
had  that  read  to  him,  corrected  it,  then  had  it  read 
again  and  corrected.  At  last  the  19th  of  January, 
1723,  the  members  of  the  General  Commissariat  of 
War  and  those  of  the  General  Directory  of  Finance 
were   called   to    the   palace. 

Not  one  of  them  knew  for  what  purpose.      Ilgen,  a 


(&  V^V^-^M  THE    FATHER.  49 

minister,  began  by  reading  a  royal  mandate,  in  which 
they  were  rebuked  for  their  follies  and  errors:  "The 
two  assemblies  know  how  to  do  nothing  but  oppose  each 
other,  as  if  the  Commissariat  General  and  Chamber  of 
Administration  do  not  likewise  belong  to  the  King  of 
Prussia.  The  Commissariat  has  lawyers  paid  from  my 
purse,  to  plead  against  the  Finance,  consequently  against 
me.  The  Finance,  to  defend  itself,  has  lawyers  also 
paid  from  my  purse.  It  is  time  to  put  an  end  to  this 
work  of  confusion."  Consequently,  the  members  of 
the  two  bodies  were  informed  that  they  were  united  into 
a  single  body,  "the  General  Superior  Directory  of  Fi- 
nance, War  and  Administration, —  General-ober-Finanz- 
Kriegs-und- Domdnen- Directorium."  They  were  then 
led  into  a  hall  prepared  for  them  ;  Ilgen  indicated  to 
each  one  his  place,  and,  standing  before  the  portrait 
of  His  Majesty,  read  the  Instruction.  After  that  he 
conducted  them  to  the  king,  who  received  their  oath  "  to 
work,  as  much  as  it  was  humanly  possible,  in  the  service 
and  for  the  welfare  of  His  Royal  Majesty,  particularly 
in  the  augmentation  and  improvement  of  all  kinds  of 
revenues,  and  at  the  same  time  for  the  preservation  of 
the  subjects,  in  the  low  countries  as  well  as  in  the  cities, 
and,  per  contra,  to  avoid  and  foresee  all  that  might 
be  injurious  to  his  said  Majesty  and  to  the  Royal  House, 
to  the  country  and  the  faithful  subjects."  33 

Here  are  the  two  principles  :  Increase  of  revenue,  and 
preservation  of  subjects.  The  king  insists  upon  this  in 
the  Instruction.  "Every  one  knows  the  formidable  con- 
sequences of  badly  taken  measures  and  too  heavy  taxes, 
which  enervate  the  people  and  render  them  incapable  of 


50  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

furnishing  integrally  to  the  sovereign  the  customary 
prestations."  It  is  necessary,  then,  to  watch  over  the 
preservation  and  prosperity  of  the  cities,  villages,  and 
the  low  countries,  and  to  impose  no  tax  too  heavy  for 
the  people  to  bear.  Third  principle  :  The  public  taxa- 
tion shall  be  equally  distributed  among  all  ;  the  contri- 
bution shall  be  taxed  "  after  the  cadastre  of  which  they 
shall  always  keep  themselves  thoroughly  informed." 
From  the  excise  no  one  shall  be  exempt:  "We  will  pay 
it,  we  and  our  Royal  House.  All  conveyances  from  ours 
to  the  lowliest  peasant  shall  be  taxed  ; "  for  the  burdens 
of  State  "must  fall  equally  upon  all  shoulders." 

These  are  about  the  only  general  ideas  to  be  found  in 
this  document.  They  are  worth  the  trouble  of  repeti- 
tion, for  they  express  a  whole  philosophy  of  State.  It 
was  not  a  fiscal  ordinance  that  Frederick  William  wrote 
in  his  hunting  lodge  ;  it  was  a  chart,  a  great  chart  of  a 
monarchy,  of  a  particular  kind  in  which  the  monarch  is 
coalescent  with  State,  like  the  God  of  Spinoza  with  na- 
ture. Understand  well  that  these  are  not  empty  formu- 
las that  Frederick  William  has  written  ;  they  are  truths. 
He  had  a  horror  of  vain  declarations  and  principles 
"that  are  lost  in  wind  and  blue  vapor." 

With  great  conciseness  he  described  the  new  organi- 
zation. The  Directory  was  divided  into  Departments, 
each  one  of  which  was  presided  over  by  a  minister.  The 
Departments  had  no  special  function  to  perform  ;  the 
monarchical  territories  were  distributed  among  them  ; 
the  affairs  of  these  territories,  of  whatever  nature  they 
might  be,  were  referred  to  them.  The  king  wished  that 
the  counselors  should  understand  all  about  these  affairs. 


THE    FATHER.  51 

"  Some  will  say  :  '  We  are  only  competent  for  affairs  of 
commerce  and  manufacture,  and  know  nothing  of  agri- 
cultural economy. '  Others  will  say  :  '  We  comprehend 
agricultural  economy,  and  know  nothing  about  the 
rest.'  .  .  .  To  these  we  respond:  'We  have  chosen  men 
intelligent  enough  to  speedily  inform  themselves  upon  all 
these  subjects.  They  have  but  to  work  zealously  to 
direct  their  attention  to  all  the  affairs,  to  gain  informa- 
tion and  enlightenment;  one  will  be  a  school  for  the 
other.  A  clever,  zealous  man,  who,  after  God,  esteems 
nothing  more  than  the  favor  of  his  king,  whom  he  serves 
through  love  and  honor,  not  for  recompense,  and  who 
has  a  horror  of  all  intrigue,  will  soon  render  himself 
skillful  enough  to  serve  us  in  all  things.  Nevertheless, 
we  are  going  to  put  you  to  the  test.  We  will  take  ad- 
vantage of  this  opportunity  to  send  a  counselor,  compe- 
tent in  agricultural  matters,  to  establish  manufactures 
and  control  the  excise  ;  if  he  does  not  administer  these 
affairs  with  address  it  will  fare  badly  with  him.'  "... 
The  work  of  the  Directory,  the  apportionment  of 
the  duties,  the  methods  of  decision  were  regulated 
with  the  greatest  care ;  the  responsibilities  were  pointed 
out  in  strong  terms.  The  king  stated  who  should  be 
responsible,  according  to  the  case  in  question,  and, 
as  he  called  the  ministers  and  counselors  by  name, 
these  Instructions  had  the  character  of  a  very  curt 
menace:  "For  example,  if  there  is  any  negligence 
in  the  first  Department,  Von  Herold,  Manitius  and 
Yon  Thiele  will  be  held  responsible.  As  'a  word 
to  the  wise  is  sufficient'  there  is  no  reason  to  believe 
that    they   will    act    differently." 


52  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

The  first  duty  was  promptness.  All  ministers  and 
counselors,  without  a  written  permission  from  the  king, 
who  arrived  an  hour  late,  should  forfeit  a  hundred  ducats  ; 
if  they  missed  an  entire  sitting  they  forfeited  six  months' 
salary  ;  in  case  of  a  second  offense,  they  were  to  be  dis- 
missed cum  infamia,  for,  "if  we  pay  our  counselors, 
they  must  work."  The  sittings  were  to  convene  at  8 
o'clock  in  winter,  at  7  in  summer,  and  continue 
until  the  order  for  the  day  was  exhausted.  If  the 
business  was  not  finished  by  2  o'clock,  half  of  the 
members  should  dine,  while  the  other  half  continued  to 
work  ;  those  who  had  dined  should  return  to  their  places 
immediately  and  the  others  should  replace  them  at  table  ; 
< 'for  it  is  necessary  that  our  service  shall  be  done 
with  zeal  and  fidelity."  Every  day  at  11  o'clock,  the 
steward  must  ask  the  usher  of  the  Directory  if  the 
members  were  going  to  dine.  "At  2  o'clock,  lie  shall 
serve  a  good  soup,  a  good  dish  of  fish,  a  good  roast 
of  beef,  mutton  or  veal,  and  a  quart  bottle  of  good 
Rhine  wine,  to  each  person.  The  bill  of  fare  shall 
not  always  be  the  same.  It  must  be  varied,  having 
a  care,  that  each  time  there  shall  be  four  good  dishes 
as  well  prepared  as  those  of  His  Majesty.  For  serving 
this,  there  shall  be  but  one  lackey,  for  it  is  not  neces- 
sary to  have  the  room  filled  with  lackeys.  Each 
guest  shall  immediately  receive  four  plates  and  a  glass ; 
he  must  put  the  soiled  plates  in  a  basket  placed  near 
him."34 

Behold  these  practical  sentiments !  These  are  real 
people  in  flesh  and  blood,  like  the  king,  who  are  there 
under  his  surveillance,  and  who  are  going  to  work  at 
once  without  any  preamble  or  ceremony. 


THE    FATHER.  53 

Nothing  simpler,  moreover,  than  the  work  prescribed 
for  them  to  do  :  increase  the  power  of  the  production  of 
the  kingdom,  so  as  to  increase  the  revenues  of  the  king. 
The  country  does  not  yield  all  that  it  can.  All  the 
losses  incurred  during  the  Thirty  Years'  War  have 
not  yet  been  repaired.  The  king  found,  in  the  old 
registers  which  he  consulted,  the  names  of  villages  that 
had  entirely  disappeared.  Since  then,  war  again,  and 
other  scourges  had  made  other  depredations.  During 
the  last  years  of  the  preceding  reign  a  pestilence  had  car- 
ried off  a  third  of  the  inhabitants  of  Prussia,  and  three- 
fourths  of  the  population  of  Lithuania.  These  vacan- 
cies—  these  Wiiste  Stellen,  the  sight  of  which  made  Fred- 
erick William  ill — must  be  filled.  They  must  build  up 
the  villages  of  the  17th  century  and  repeople  the  de- 
serted cantons.  The  peace  that  the  kingdom  was  then 
enjoying  insured  a  superaddition  of  births  ;  but  this 
natural  repeopling  was  slow,  and  Frederick  William  was 
very  impatient.  They  must,  then,  make  subjects  of 
foreigners  ;  his  Prussia  was  the  asylum  for  all  who  fled 
from  religious  persecution,  or  who  came  to  seek  their 
fortunes  through  labor.  He  did  not  content  himself 
with  merely  receiving  them  ;  he  summoned,  cared  for 
and  humored  them.  To  put  some  one  where  there  never 
had  been  any  one  before,  was  to  create  ;  the  king  thus 
applied  himself  to  ameliorate.  He  did  not  refuse  his 
farmers  any  "  repairs"  ;  if  it  was  necessary  to  build,  he 
built ;  to  make  a  clearing,  he  made  a  clearing  ;  to  drain 
a  marsh,  he  did  that.  This  work  of  increasing  the  value 
of  his  kingdom,  upon  which  he  expended  an  incredible 
amount  of  energy,  he  recommended  to  the  Directory,  but 


54  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

he  took  the  precaution  not  to  be  deceived.  He  could 
not  bear  the  idea  that  a  thaler,  a  pfennig  even,  should 
be  stolen  from  him  or  misused. 

He  exacted  absolute  regularity  in  the  accounts,  for 
money  escaped  through  the  slightest  disorder.  Neither 
did  he  wish  that  the  farmers  to  whom  a  new  building 
was  granted  should  build  it  themselves,  then  retain  out 
of  the  rent  of  the  lands  the  sum  expended.  "For  in- 
stance," said  he  —  he  loved  to  exemplify  and  give  pre- 
cision to  his  thought  by  examples —  "Farmer  Lursten, 
of  Kopenick,  owes  a  rent  of  500  thalers.  They  ask 
him  why  he  does  not  pay  it.  He  answers  that  his  ex- 
pense for  building  counterbalances  it,  and  that  the 
Chamber  of  Administration  is  indebted  to  him.  An- 
swers like  this  arrive  from  all  the  countries.  This  must 
be  changed  ;  the  farmers  must  not  be  occupied  in  any- 
thing but  cultivating  the  soil.  They  will  pay  their 
quarter's  rent  without  deducting  a  farthing,  for  we 
will  not  receive  accounts  and  paper  for  money.  Each 
Chamber  of  Administration  shall  have  a  master  architect, 
who  shall  have  charge  of  constructions,  and  a  superin- 
tendent of  the  building,  who  shall  pay  the  workmen. 
The  master  shall  watch  over  the  superintendent ;  one  of 
the  counselors  of  the  Chamber  will  keep  an  eye  on  both 
of  these ;  the  whole  Chamber  shall  look  after  all  three. 
If,  notwithstanding  these  precautions,  they  secretly 
blow  in  the  same  horn,  then  they  are  a  lot  of  rascals." 

The  founding  of  the  colonies  cost  very  dear  ;  the 
king  who  "swallowed"  this  expense,  as  he  said,  "  spoon- 
ful by  spoonful,"  felt  the  bitterness  of  it,  but  he 
realized    its    necessity.       So   he    resolved   to    continue 


THE    FATHER.  55 

this  colonization,  but  he  varied  it  from  year  to  year. 
There  was  in  the  arrangement  of  it  something  unique 
and  extraordinary.  The  king  did  not  like  these  *  <  Flic 
Flac  expenses."  He  wished  to  regulate  them  even 
to  the  minutest  detail.  He  set  aside  a  certain  sum, 
that  must  not  be  exceeded  by  a  farthing,  Besides, 
he  did  not  approve  of  making  any  but  good  invest- 
ments ;  the  propositions  for  opening  of  credits  should 
be  very  cautiously  dealt  with:  "Not  to  build  farms 
or  villages,  unless  10  per  cent,  on  the  capital  employed, 
could  be  realized." 

Frederick  William  put  his  old  and  new  subjects  in 
a  condition  to  work :  this  was  his  duty.  Make  the 
present  subjects  do  theirs,  by  working  well,  that  is 
to  say,  in  obtaining  from  the  ground  all  that  it  can 
produce  by  proper  cultivation,  without  uselessly  spend- 
ing a  farthing.  "They  have  but  to  take  example 
from  the  king"  said  he:  "Upon  our  little  estate  of 
Schenken,  which  we  cultivate  ourselves,  and  where  we 
have  learned  things  by  experience,    not  from  books." 

Thus  the  population  of  the  kingdom  will  increase 
from  day  to  day ;  agricultural  implements  will  be 
improved ;  new  territories  will  be  brought  under  culti- 
vation; the  peasant  subjects  of  the  King  of  Prussia 
will  produce  more  each  year.  Then,  they  will  pay 
the  farm  rents  and  the  contributions.  The  citizens, 
as  well,  must  pay  their  excise,  and,  in  order  to  do  that, 
industry  must  be  promoted  in  the  cities,  like  agricul- 
ture in  the  country.  Here  again,  fill  up  the  Wiiste 
Stellen,  which  are  numerous,  make  and  remake,  con- 
struct  and   reconstruct.        "My   cities   of   Prussia   are 


56  FREDERICK   THE    GREAT. 

in  a  bad  state":  the  General  Directory  must  neglect 
nothing  to  remedy  this  evil.  There  are  not  enough 
cities  in  Lithuania :  the  General  Directory  must  build 
some.  This  must  be  taken  hold  of  "  earnestly  and 
vigorously, — mit  Ernst  und  Vigueur, —  in  such  a 
way  that  our  desire  may  be  gratified  as  soon  as  possi- 
ble. They  know  of  what  great  importance  the 
establishment  of  manufactures  is  to  us  and  to  our 
country.  They  must  apply  themselves  with  ex- 
treme zeal  in  promoting  all  kinds  of  industries,  wool, 
leather,  iron,  wood,  that  do  not  exist  in  our  country, 
and  establish  as  many  of  them  as  possible."  Foreign 
workmen  must  be  imported.  -  The  king  indicates  to 
them  where  will  be  found  woolen  drapers  and  stock- 
ing manufacturers.  If  they  have  need  of  a  master- 
draper,  let  them  seek  one  at  Gorlitz,  at  Lissa  or  in 
Holland.  They  must  promise  and  give  him  a  situation ; 
they  must  marry  him  to  "a  girl  of  our  country";  they 
must  advance  the  wool  to  him:  "And  this  is  the  way 
the  master-draper  will  earn  his  bread,  found  a  family, 
and  become  independent."  Nothing  easier:  "You  can- 
not make  me  believe  that  it  will  be  much  trouble  to 
engage  such  people  and  attract  them  to  our  country." 
The  industrial  production  would  then  increase  like  the 
agricultural ;  but  the  sale  and  consumption  of  the 
products  should  be  assured.  Here,  the  rule  was  very 
simple:  "Not  to  buy  of  foreign  countries,  or  buy  as 
little  as  possible  ;  to  sell  them  as  much  as  possible.  As 
to  the  imports  of  the  kingdom,  absolute  prohibition 
or  diminution  by  heavy  duties ;  as  to  the  exports 
a  slight  tax,  which  will  not  prevent  exportation.     Only 


THE    FATHER.  57 

there  are  exceptions  to  this  rule.  The  ideal  of  the 
King  of  Prussia  was  that  Prussia  should  be  self-sup- 
porting, as  if  she  were  alone  in  the  world.  He  estab- 
lished between  his  cities  and  countries  an  exchange 
of  relations  and  services.  He  bound  together  agricul- 
ture and  commerce,  so  that  they  complimented  each 
other.  For  example,  one  of  the  great  agricultural  pro- 
ducts was  wool.  The  peasants  wished  to  export  it ; 
but  then,  it  would  be  necessary  for  the  drapers,  who 
would  not  be  able  to  find  enough  wool  in  the  country, 
to  buy  it  outside,  and  behold  the  Prussian  money  going 
out  of  the  country.  The  king  then  forbade  the  ex- 
portation of  wool.  The  consequence  was  that  all  the 
wool  had  to  be  consumed  in  the  country ;  otherwise, 
"  our  provincial  Chambers  will  not  fail  to  say  that 
our  farmers  will  not  be  able  to  dispose  of  their  wool, 
that  it  will  no  longer  be  worth  anything,  and  so 
forth     .  .  "     The  king  also  prescribed  to  the  Cham- 

bers of  Administration  and  the  Commissariats  of  War 
an  exact  estimate,  on  the  one  hand,  of  the  quantity 
and  quality  of  the  wool  produced  in  each  province ; 
on  the  other,  of  the  manufactories  that  worked  the 
wool.  "The  General  Directory,"  said  he,  "shall 
compare  the  total  of  the  wool  manufactured  with  the 
total  of  the  wool  produced.  Let  us  suppose  the  first 
total  to  be  inferior  to  the  second,  and  that  2,000  pounds 
of  the  wool  of  first  quality  and  1,000  of  medium  quality 
will  not  find  buyers.  The  General  Directory  shall 
establish  in  a  city  nine  drapers,  each  of  which  will 
use  300  pounds  of  good  wool,  and  employ  one  hundred 
operatives  in  the  stocking  manufactories,  each  of  which 


58  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

will  work  up  at  least  10  pounds  of  medium  wool.  The 
evil  is  remedied.  All  this  will  be  profit  to  the  king- 
dom, for  the  Prussian  peasant  will  sell  his  wool ;  Prus- 
sia will  manufacture  cloth  and  stockings  in  sufficient 
quantities  for  the  consumption  of  the  country  and 
for  exportation."  The  king  was  so  sure  of  being  in 
the  right,  that  to  prohibit  the  exportation  of  wool, 
he   ordered    as    the   penalty   " strangulation." 

Since  every  one  else  was  attending  to  his  own  business, 
the  king  would  attend  to  his  also.  He  admitted  no  tardi- 
ness in  the  payment  of  his  revenues.  For  the  excise, 
which  was  an  indirect  impost,  there  was  no  difficulty, 
but  the  rural  affairs  had  to  await  the  contributions 
and  the  farm  rents.  The  king  spoke  clearly  on  this 
subject:  "The  payment  must  be  made  punctually  at 
a  fixed  time,  without  even  the  smallest  deduction, 
and  we  admit  of  no  excuse,  from  any  one  whomsoever." 
He  knew  all  the  tricks  of  the  peasants.  They  would 
not  fail  to  say  that  the  commodities  were  sold  too  low. 
"Reply  to  them,  that  they  cannot  have  only  dear 
commodities.  If  it  were  thus,  we  would  have  the 
rentals  too  low.  The  lease  has  been  calculated  on  a 
mean  average,  so  that  a  good  year  will  cover  the  losses 
of  a  bad  year.  We  have  not  promised  our  farmers 
that  they  would  have  none  but  profitable  years.  They 
have  signed  the  lease  without  condition, — ohne  zu 
conditionniren.  The  farm  rents  have  been  justly  im- 
posed so  that  the  proprietor  may  draw  profit  from 
his  lands,  and  receive  the  rental,  —  the  ready  money, — 
without  entering  into  complicated  accounts.  Then, 
away    with   all   weakness,    no    '  humanitarianism.'       If 


THE    FATHER.  59 

the  money  is  delayed,  if  it  is  <  tied  up' somewhere, 
employ  means  of  untying  it.  If  these  methods  do  not 
appear  as  clear  as  the  sun  in  the  sky,  send  with- 
out losing  a  moment's  time  to  the  place  where  this 
default  and  confusion  is  rife,  and  there  apply  the 
remedy." 

The  General  Directory  shall  exercise  its  authority  over 
all  the  Administration  of  the  monarchy.  The  Commis- 
sariats of  War  and  the  Chamber  of  Administration  of 
the  provinces  emanate  from  it.  When  there  are  vacan- 
cies the  Directory  shall  fill  them  again.  It  shall  place 
in  the  Commissariats  worthy,  diligent  men,  provided 
with  a  healthy,  natural  understanding,  versed  in  manu- 
facture, excise  and  all  affairs  pertaining  to  the  Commis- 
sariats ;  and  in  the  Chamber  of  Administration  strong, 
healthy,  vigilant  men,  who  are  experienced  in  farming, 
whether  as  overseers  of  estates  or  as  practical  farmers, 
and  proficient  in  bookkeeping.  The  king  desires  the 
members  of  the  Directory  to  have  the  highest  attri- 
butes. The  ministers,  after  making  diligent  search, 
shall  propose  the  most  competent  persons,  faithful  and 
honest,  whether  Lutherans  or  Calvinists,  such  as  com- 
prehend practical  economy  and  are  acquainted  with  com- 
merce and  manufacture,  capable  of  writing  well,  that  is 
to  say,  of  stating  a  subject  properly,  having  "  clear 
heads." 

Frederick  William  made  of  this  a  kind  of  portrait  of 
the  Prussian  bureaucracy  which  he  created — a  kind  of 
noblesse  civile,  drilled  to  service,  vigorously  disciplined, 
exact,  hardworking,  the  mainspring  of  a  State  where 
the   subjects  who  had  lost  the  last  vestiges  of  feudal 


60  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

liberty,*  obeyed  the  royal  order :  Nicht  raisonniren, — 
here,  no  reasoning.  The  time  will  come  when  this 
body  will  take  the  form  of  a  caste  ;  the  "clear  heads" 
will  be  heard  no  more  ;  exactitude  will  become  a  mania ; 
zeal,  pedantry,  and  all  that  fine  organization  will  be 
nothing  but  a  machine.  Then  it  will  be  seen  that  a 
nation  cannot  live  in  the  air  of  a  bureau,  that  it  is  dead, 
in  fact,  and  the  machine  turns  in  a  vacuum.  But  the 
danger  of  the  morrow  was,  the  day  before,  a  necessary 
state  of  existence. 

The  Prussian  bureaucracy  was  the  first  organ  of  the 
nation  of  Prussia.  The  king,  after  having  enumerated 
the  virtues  that  he  exacted  from  his  functionaries,  adds : 
"  And,  above  all,  they  must  be  our  born  subjects."  He 
reserves  to  himself  the  right  of  calling  one  or  two  for- 
eigners into  the  Chambers  and  Commissariats,  but  they 
must  be  very  proficient  in  order  to  counteract  the  defect 
of  not  being  born  subjects  of  the  king ;  for  he  wishes  to 
create  the  idea  that  a  chance  visitor  is  not  able  to  com- 
prehend the  sentiment  of  a  country.  This  country  will 
be  no  longer  a  Brandenburg  for  the  Brandenburgers,  a 
Pomerania  for  the  Pomeranians,  or  a  Prussia  for  the 
Prussians  ;  it  will  be,  without  distinction  of  territories, 
the  whole  extent  of  his  domination.  He  orders  recruit- 
ing the  Chambers  and  Commissariats  of  one  province 
with  men  born  in  another.  For  example,  if  there  are 
vacancies  in  Prussia,  men  must  be  called  from  Cleves, 
Brandenburg  or  Pomerania,  not  from  Prussia.  And 
the  same  with  the  other  countries  ;  the  king  will  send 
the  people  of  his  provinces  away  from  their  homes  ;  he 
will  remove  the  barriers  of  these  small  countries,  so  as 


THE    FATHER.  61 

to  blend  them  into  the  one  great  country.  A  peculiar 
country,  which  is  neither  the  product  of  nature  nor  of 
history,  the  true  definition  of  it  being  :  The  Prussian 
country;   that  is,  the  service  of  the  King  of  Prussia. 

Between  the  Directory  and  the  Chambers  and  Com- 
missariats the  intercourse  shall  be  regular  and  frequent. 
A  report  from  the  provinces  will  arrive  each  week.  In 
order  that  these  reports  may  be  exact  and  circumstan- 
tial, the  Presidents  of  the  Chambers  must  inspect  the 
estates,  villages  and  farms  with  the  greatest  care  ;  the 
Presidents  of  the  Commissariats  must  visit  the  cities 
under  their  jurisdiction,  and  keep  themselves  informed  of 
the  commerce  and  the  manufactures,  the  citizens  and 
the  residents,  that  they  may  know  the  cities  of  their  de- 
partment "as  well  as  a  captain  of  our  army  knows  his 
company,  when  he  understands  all  of  the  innate  qualities 
as  well  as  exterior  characteristics  of  his  soldiers."  An 
abridgement  of  these  reports  was  transmitted  to  the 
king,  who,  in  this  way,  knew  regularly  all  that  trans- 
pired in  his  kingdom,  and  whether  or  not  each  one  was 
doing  "  his  duty.' 

THE    GOVERNMENT    OF    THE    KING. 

The  king,  in  order  to  give  the  Directory  "more  lus- 
tre and  authority,  in  order  to  show  the  particular  atten- 
tion that  he  proposes  to  pay  constantly  and  indefatigably 
to  the  affairs  appealable  to  the  Directory,  and  as  its  ex- 
treme importance  demands,"  reserved  for  himself  the 
presidency.  He  was  not  a  man  to  give  an  order  once,  so 
as  to  remain  ever  after  inactive.  Every  evening  the  Di- 
rectory sent  him  a  proces  verbal  of  the  sitting  for  the 


62  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

day,  which  he  read  the  following  morning.  He  did  not 
admit  of  any  decision  to  be  taken,  involving  some  inno- 
vation, without  his  approval.  This  great  council  had 
but  little  consultative  voice.  Not  one  expense  for  im- 
provement was  authorized  except  by  the  king  himself  ; 
no  lease  was  confirmed  until  after  it  had  received  his 
signature.  The  plan  was  presented  to  him  with  a  brief 
but  clear  note,  which  permitted  him  "to  see  the  nature 
of  the  thing  immediately."  The  authority  that  he 
gave  to  the  Directory  to  address  questions  to  him 
"every  time  they  may  deem  it  necessary,  notably,  in  all 
extraordinary  cases,"  comprised  an  order  to  refer  every- 
thing to  him,  of  whatever  import.  This  is  certainly 
the  way  that  he  wished  it  to  be  understood.  "The 
questions,"  said  he,  "must  be  brief  and  forcible — (in 
we?iig  JVbrteti  and  nerveus).  .  .  ."  To  each  one 
should  be  appended  the  advice  of  the  General  Directory. 
For  example  :  There  is  a  horse  to  be  sold  for  a  hundred 
thalers.  "We  think  that  Y.  M.  will  do  well  to  buy  it, 
but  only  for  eighty  thalers ;  otherwise  Y.  M.  would 
lose  for  such  a  reason." 

The  example  proves  that  the  king  wished  to  be  in- 
structed in  the  minutest  detail.  He  received  questions 
by  the  thousands  and  thousands,  to  which  he  responded 
in  short  marginal  notes.  We  can  scarcely  understand 
why  he  was  not  drowned  in  this  inundation  of  diverse 
minatice  for  the  most  part  unimportant,  and  how  he 
was  able  to  give  so  concisely  and  very  often  with 
spirit  a  like  number  of  instructions.  It  was  because 
he  loved  to  command.  Frederick,  his  father,  delighted 
at   all   times    and    in    all   places  to  display   the  majesty 


THE    FATHER.  63 

of  the  King  of  Prussia ;  Frederick  William,  to  make 
this  majesty  felt.  "You  must  each  time,"  said  he 
to  the  Directory,  "and  for  each  affair,  add  your  ad- 
vice with  the  reasons  upon  which  you  establish  it, 
but  we  will  remain  the  Seignior  and  King  and  will 
do  as  we  will.  Wir  bleiben  dock  der  Ilerr  und  Konig 
und  thun  teas  wir  loollen"  A  few  lines  farther  on, 
after  having  declared  that  he  intended  always  to  know 
the  truth,  that  he  wished  no  flattery  of  any  kind,  he 
repeats  the  same  words,  "We  are  the  Seignior  and 
King,    and    do    as   we   will." 

The  mind  of  a  king  who  thus  comprehends  and  prac- 
tices his  duties  has  not  a  moment  of  repose.  There  was 
in  Frederick  William's  dominions,  as  in  all  the  States  of 
Europe,  administrative  machinery  of  different  dates, 
mixed  together,  which  disappeared  after  the  reorgan- 
ization of  the  Chambers  and  Commissariats.  The  con- 
flict of  privileges  that  the  king  suppressed  in  finance, 
continued  between  the  administrative  and  judicial 
authorities.  There  were  also  habits  formed,  resistance 
of  routine ;  no  rebellion,  but  inertia,  unwillingness, 
and,  in  all  grades  of  society,  from  the  noble  to  the  peas- 
ant, the  murmur  of  a  people  from  whom  an  effort  was 
demanded.  Frederick  William  knew  well  that  he  was 
not  fully  obeyed  except  when  he  was  there  in  propria 
persona.  He  could  not  be,  and  was  truly,  never  at  rest. 
He  would  have  liked  to  see  all  the  world  at  work  :  farm- 
ers on  their  farms,  workmen  at  their  trade,  counselors  in 
council.  He  recommended  to  the  Directory  to  watch 
over  the  Chambers  and  Commissariats,  to  inspect  them 
and  not  to  rely  on  their  word.      He  enjoined   it  to  em- 


64  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

ploy  spies.  Each  of  the  counselors  must  have  one, 
which  he  must  choose  from  among  all  kinds  of  people : 
farmers,  tradesmen,  and  peasants.  He  will  obtain,  in 
this  way,  false  as  well  as  true  information ;  with  good 
judgment,  he  will  discern  the  true  from  the  false.  This 
espionage  will  enlighten  the  Directory,  even  upon  the 
minutissima.  The  king  took  the  trouble  to  give  a  model 
of  these  secret  reports  :  "For  example,  in  Prussia,  there 
have  been  good  winters  and  hard  winters.  The  com- 
modities arrive  in  the  cities.  The  wood  for  building  is 
carted.  The  building  goes  on.  There  are  indications 
of  a  good, crop.  Commerce,  navigation  and  manufact- 
ures begin  to  prosper.  .  .  .  Such  or  such  a  village 
is  burned.  The  nobility  conspire  secretly  against  a 
certain  impost.  A  certain  regiment  buys  its  provisions 
from  a  foreign  country.  The  Chamber  of  Administra- 
tions will  turn  over  its  exact  amount  of  rentals  or  not. 
There  may  be  good  reasons  or  not  for  the  delay.  This 
must  be  corrected.       There  have   been   twenty   houses 

built  in  the  city " 

Frederick  William  would  never  have  finished  if  he 
had  enumerated  all  the  objects  of  his  curiosity  and 
anxiety :  he  shows  in  the  ordinance  that  he  had  his 
head  full  of  doubt  at  all  times  upon  the  most  diverse 
matters.  —  The  Directory  proposes  to  him  an  augmenta- 
tion of  such  and  such  a  revenue.  But  would  there  not 
be  an  equal  or  greater  loss  in  such  and  such  another 
revenue?  Then  what  they  propose  to  him  is  not  an 
amelioration,  it  is  wind :  Keine  Besserimg,  ergo, 
Wind.  —  Do  not  the  Chambers  of  Administration  and 
the  Commissariats   of  War  continue  to   quarrel  among 


THE    FATHER.  65 

themselves  on  the  subject  of  the  distribution  of  such  and 
such  funds  or  imposts?  "They  must  find  another  way 
to  amuse  themselves ;  then  the  poor  devils  of  lawyers 
and  jurists  will  become  as  useless  as  a  fifth  wheel  to  a 
coach." — Do  the  farmers  fertilize  well  their  lands? 
They  are  capable  of  impoverishing  them.  They  must 
be  prevented  from  selling  their  straw.  —  Certain  officers, 
for  example,  of  the  hunt  are  thieves,  but  still  they  do 
not  take  advantage  of  everything  that  their  right  of 
office  permits.  The  whole  thing  must  be  changed. — 
Are  there  not  too  many  officers?  Could  not  several 
duties  be  included  in  one?  Let  us  see  then  if  a  certain 
number  of  officials  cannot  be  cut  off —  (retrcmgirt). — 
Why  is  beer  not  as  good  elsewhere  as- at  Potsdam?  — 
To  have  wool,  we  must  have  sheep  ;  now,  in  Prussia, 
there  are  nearly  as  many  wolves  as  sheep.  Quick, 
an  order  for  hunting  wolves. —  How  is  it  that  the  impost 
on  salt  is  less  this  year  than  the  preceding  in  the  Hal- 
berstadt?  The  number  of  inhabitants  has  not  dimin- 
ished. They  have  eaten  as  much  salt  as  last  year. 
There  is  some  fraud,  some  leakage.  You  must  then 
give  warning  to  the  principal  manufacturer  of  salt  to 
manage  otherwise  than  the  way  he  has  been  doing  up 
to  this  time.  Perhaps  also  the  subjects  buy  their  salt 
in  Hanover  or  Poland.  All  of  these  importers  of  salt 
must  be  hung,  etc.,  etc. 

Let  us  admit  an  impossible  thing,  that  all  the  world, 
without  exception,  does  its  duty.  Country  and  town 
are  well  populated ;  the  former  furnishing  food  and  ma- 
terial for  industry,  the  latter  working  up  this  material 
in  such  a  manner  that  not  a  particle  of  it  is  lost.      Prus- 


66  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

sia  is  fed,  clothed,  supplied  with  implements,  armed. 
Not  only  is  she  sufficient  unto  herself,  but  "she  pro- 
duces a  surplus  —  ein  Plus"  which  is  sold  to  foreign 
countries.  Will  the  king  remain  inactive  ?  He  cannot, 
for  the  least  accident  will  put  this  machine  out  of  order, 
every  movement  of  which  is  calculated  with  mathemat- 
ical accuracy.  For  example,  the  budget  of  receipts  and 
expenses  is  made  out  for  each  provincial  fund.  One 
foresees  that  such  a  regiment  will  consume,  per  head,  so 
much,  including  man  and  beast,  and  that  the  excise  will 
deduct  beforehand  such  a  sum  for  this  consumption  ; 
but  war  breaks  out,  or  perhaps  the  regiment  is  called  to 
Potsdam  or  elsewhere  to  maneuver  or  to  go  into  camp. 
The  receipt  of  the  excise  becomes  less  ;  the  peasant  no 
longer  sells  his  provisions  :  "When  my  army  leaves  the 
country,  the  excise  does  not  bring  in  more  than  a  third  ; 
the  pretium  rerun  diminishes  ;  the  domains  no  longer 
pay  the  rent  charge."  It  is  very  difficult  to  avoid 
a  fire  taking  place  somewhere.  Each  year  houses, 
villages,  and  even  towns,  are  burned.  This  makes 
new  "empty  places."  Nothing  more  deplorable. 
— Again,  can  one  not  remedy  these  various  evils  ? 
Move  the  regiments  as  little  as  possible,  order 
every  village  to  have  its  engine  and  firemen,  and 
have  the  thatched  roofs  replaced  everywhere  "inside  of 
five  years"  by  tiled  roofs.  But  what  is  to  be  done  to 
prevent  bad  crops,  and  pestilence  of  man  and  beast  ? 
Frederick  William  prayed  God  "in  His  mercy "  to 
spare  him  these  scourges,  but  God's  mercy  is  uncertain. 
It  required  all  the  King  of  Prussia's  religion  to  admit 
without  blasphemy,  the  possibility  that  God  might  take 


THE    FATHER.  67 

away  from  him  a  man  or  a  beast,  each  one  of  which  was 
so  precious,  and  counted  for  such  and  such  a  sum  in  the 
exactitude  of  his  calculations. 

Submitting  himself  'to  the  Divine  Will,  the  king 
at  least  meant  to  have  all  his  subjects  obey  him.  uWe 
will  extend  our  favor  and  our  protection  to  all  those  who 
will  observe  all  the  points  of  this  order,  and  use  all  our 
power  against  those  who  will  not.  As  for  the  others, 
who  insist  on  returning  to  the  old  routine,  we  will  chas- 
tise them  exemplarily,  Russian  fashion, — exemplarisch 
und  auf  gut  jRussisch."  35 

THE    CREATION    OF   PRUSSIAN    POWER. 

The  remarkable  result  of  this  order,  made,  as  the 
king  said,  "for  the  strengthening  of  our  crown  and 
army,"  was  the  advancement  of  the  Prussian  army. 
This  is  the  wonder  of  this  reign,  and  one  of  the  great 
events  of  history. 

If  Frederick  William  had  required  military  service 
from  all  the  population  of  his  kingdom  he  would  not 
have  been  able  to  form  out  of  it  that  powerful  army 
that  he  wished  to  give  to  his  little  Prussia ;  but  he  was 
careful  not  to  exhaust  the  productive  forces  of  his  terri- 
tories. In  the  very  simple  system  that  he  had  conceived, 
he  must,  first  of  all,  make  money,  and  afterward  increase 
his  troops  in  proportion  to  his  new  resources,  from 
which  he  deducted  a  portion  to  constitute  a  reserve 
fund  of  the  monarchy.  There  must  be  a  helping-hand 
extended  to  industry  and  agriculture.  However,  there 
was  in  the  reasoning  of  all  his  work  the  creation  of 
a    national    army.     This    difficult    problem    was    made 


68  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

still  more  complex  by  the  incoherence  of  the  military 
institutions,  where  modern  customs  were  grafted  upon 
the  remains  of  feudalism.  In  seeking  the  solution, 
Frederick  William  ended  by  arriving,  after  many  at- 
tempts and  much  groping  about,  at  a  mixed  regime, 
of  which  certain  parts  had  an  entirely  modern  spirit.  36 

From  the  Middle  Ages  proceeded  the  militia,  that  is 
to  say,  the  troops  of  occasion,  so  that  military  service 
was  an  exceptionally  easy  occupation.  The  king, 
good  trooper  that  he  was,  had  such  a  horror  of  this  na- 
tional guard  that  he  desired  to  abolish  even  its  name. 
The  principal  mode  of  recruiting  was  through  volun- 
tary enlistment  obtained  by  crimping.  Frederick 
William  was  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  enlisters  of 
soldiers  ever  known  in  military  history. 

His  mania  for  tall  men  is  famous.  He  attempted  to 
propagate  them  in  his  own  country  ;  he  commanded 
giants  to  marry  giantesses.  When  he  learned  that  from 
one  of  these  unions  there  was  born  a  child  with  large 
hands  and  feet,  he  rejoiced  and  ordered  mother  and 
child  to  be  sent  for  immediately ;  even  in  the  cold  of 
midwinter,  and  when  necessary  for  the  mother  to  make 
the  trip  from  Cleves  to  Berlin.37  This  giant-rearing  pro- 
ducing but  slight  results,  he  sought  for  them  in  countries 
where  they  naturally  thrived,  Sweden,  the  Ukraine,  Ire 
land,  Lower  Hungary,  and  wherever  they  could  be 
found.  And  this  king,  so  economical  otherwise,  dis- 
pensed his  thalers  by  the  millions  to  satisfy  this  caprice. 
His  recruiters  respected  no  laws  of  peoples,  and  he  had 
to  undergo  more  than  one  diplomatic  scene  in  regard  to 
their  acts  of  brigandage.     He  was  extremely  sensitive  to 


THE    FATHER.  69 

incidents  of  this  kind,  would  fly  into  a  passion  and  .be 
much  troubled  over  it:  "They  will  dishonor  me,"  said 
he,  for  he  believed  it  was  to  his  honor  to  have  only 
giants,  at  least  in  his  first  regiment  of  Potsdam  Grena- 
diers. Once  he  came  near  having  a  war  with  Hanover, 
who  had  maltreated  his  recruiters.  The  best  way  of 
paying  court  to  him  was  to  furnish  him  with  giants ;  his 
ministers  and  his  son  Frederick  went  so  far  as  to  say 
that  his  fidelity  to  Austria  was  explained  by  the  care  the 
Emperor  took  to  flatter  this  passion.  He,  himself  said : 
"To  win  the  most  beautiful  girl  or  woman  in  the  world 
would  be  a  matter  of  indifference  to  me ;  but  I  have  one 
weak  point,  a  mania  for  soldiers,  and  in  gratifying  it, 
one  can  lead  me  wherever  one  wills. f38  This  "weak  [ 
/  point"  cost  him  so  much  money,  fatigue,  and  danger, 
that  this  giant  mania  of  the  King  of  Prussia  was  re- 
garded as  a  maniacal  freak  in  the  full  sense  of  the  word, 
"and  one  which  cannot  be  solved,"  said  a  foreign  Min- 
ister, "unless  by  some  future  anatomy." 

This  idiosyncrasy  ought  not  to  obscure  the  rest  of  the 
work.  Frederick  William  recruited  and  enrolled,  out- 
side of  his  States,  more  than  forty  thousand  men,  and 
from  his  own  people  an  equal  number.  It  is  here  that 
he  hit  upon  a  future  idea.  For  a  long  time,  each  regi- 
ment had  an  assigned  district  for  recruiting,  where  the 
crimps  of  the  colonel  and  captains  had  alone  the  right 
to  exercise  their  trade,  but  the  regiments  encroached 
upon  each  other,  and  the  institution,  badly  regulated, 
produced  conflicts  and  disorder.  Frederick  William 
sketched  out  through  the  whole  extent  of  his  territory 
these  military  boundaries,   which   were  determined   by 


70  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

the  number  of  arms ;  five  thousand  arms  for  a  reg- 
iment of  infantry,  fifteen  hundred  for  cavalry : 
the  district  was  subdivided  into  cantons,  one  for 
each  company.  Voluntary  enlisting  was  abolished. 
Some  classes  of  persons  were  exempt  from  military 
service  and  reserved  for  trades  and  husbandry, 
which  were  also,  according  to  Frederick  William, 
public  service ;  these  exemptions,  however,  did  not 
interfere  with  the  principle  thus  expressed:  "All 
subjects  are  born  to  carry  arms,  — fur  die  Waff  en 
geboren, — and  bound  to  serve  in  the  regiment, — dem 
Regiment  obligat, —  in  the  district  where  they  are  born." 39 
It  made  no  difference  to  Frederick  William  about 
arriving  little  by  little  and  by  indirect  ways  to  the  ex- 
pression of  this  idea  of  military  duty.  Ideas  follow 
their  course,  through  many  obstacles.  Besides,  they 
never  spring  frpm  nullity.  There  was  in  Frederick 
William,  who  was  a  zealous  servant  of  the  State,  and 
prided  himself  upon  being,  in  his  way,  a  true  republican, 
ein  wahrer  JRepublikaner, — a  predisposition  to  establish 
the  idea  of  the  obligation  of  military  service  toward 
the  Civitas.  The  effects  of  such  a  declaration  of  prin- 
ciple must  have  been  considerable.  .  .  .  Behold  a 
people  who  are  given  notice  that  they  are  born  to  carry 
arms ;  every  child  at  the  same  time  that  he  learns  the 
name  of  his  village  learns  that  of  the  regiment  "to 
which  he  is  bound."  This  obligation  raises  up  and 
ennobles  the  most  humble  subjects.  The  peasant,  whose 
condition  was,  in  Frederick  William's  country,  that  of 
a  beast  of  burden,  becomes  a  member  of  the  State,  and 
of  a  State  where  the  soldier.'s  coat  was  held   in  high 


THE    FATHER.  71 

esteem:  the  king's  son,  when  the  paternal  displeasure 
fell  upon  him,  asked  as  a  favor  from  "the  majesty  of 
his  father,"  to  reinstate  him  by  giving  him  back  his 
uniform    of    the  Grenadiers. 

Frederick  William  desired  to  make  the  framework 
of  the  Prussian  army  out  of  the  nobility  of  Prussia. 
Up  to  his  time,  numerous  foreigners  had  attained  the 
highest  ranks  in  Prussia,  and  Prussian  nobles  went  else- 
where to  seek  their  fortunes:  he  resolved  to  reserve  his 
nobles  for  his  service,  and  his  service  for  his  nobles.  .  . 
He  not  only  commenced  this  great  reform,  but  he  recom- 
mended it  to  his  successors  :  "My  successor  must  have 
all  the  nobles  of  all  the  provinces  employed  in  the  army 
and  placed  among  the  cadets.  This  will  render  him 
formidable.  ...  If  you  have  officers  taken  from 
among  the  children  of  your  country,  you  have  a  true, 
permanent  army,  a  body  of  permanent  officers,  and 
this  no  other  potentate  possesses,  und  Kein  Potentat 
hatdas."40  The  man  who  wrote  these  lines  saw  the  future 
of  the  Prussian  army,  and  ended  by  establishing  the  char- 
acter of  the  Prussian  State.  All  commonalty  subjects 
born  to  serve,  all  noble  subjects  born  to  command  under 
the  orders  of  the  king ;  the  social  hierarchy  transferred 
to  the  State;  the  nobility  utilized  and  disciplined  ;  the 
vanity  of  the  country  squire  transformed  into  the  pride 
of  an  officer,  all  this,  which  is  so  much  to  be  commended 
and  not  to  be  found  "in  the  realms  of  any  potentate," 
proceeded  in  great  part  from  Frederick  William. 

The  cohesion  of  the  army,  enclosed  in  this  royal 
frame,  was  assured,  through  discipline  and  careful  atten- 
tion, of    all  in   the  service.     For  the  King  of  Prussia 


72  FREDERICK   THE    GREAT. 

there  were  no  minutice  in  soldiery.  When  he  sent  his 
son,  in  1734,  to  the  Army  of  the  Rhine,  he  prescribed 
that  he  should  be  instructed  "fully  and  carefully  in  de- 
tail, not  only  of  the  regular  service,  but  in  all  detail ; 
he  shall  learn  how  the  soldiers'  shoes  are  made,  and 
how  long  a  time  they  can  be  worn.  .  .  .  The 
prince  shall  go  thus  from  the  smallest  detail  concerning 
the  soldier  to  the  greatest, —  from  the  shoe  to  the  can- 
non of  the  heavy  artillery.  He  shall  pass  immediately 
into  the  regular  service,  in  order  to  train  himself  up  to 
the  dispositio?ies  generalissimini."4,1  All  the  detail  —  to 
use  an  expression  that  he  repeated  so  many  times, — 
Frederick  William  regulated,  from  the  length  of  the 
sleeve,  and  the  width  of  the  collar,  to  the  number  of 
buttons  on  the  boot.  He  really  created  the  Prussian 
uniform,  stiff,  clean,  shining,  which  once  provoked  a 
smile,  but  which  is  now  one  of  the  many  expressions  of 
the  obedience  of  thousands  of  men  to  a  single  will, 
which  foresaw  everything. 

Frederick  William  was  not  contented  to  command 
and  watch  over  his  army  from  a  high  elevation ;  he  as- 
signed himself  a  place  there,  and  daily  duties.  He, 
himself,  was  a  colonel  to  the  King  of  Prussia,  the  one 
who  had  the  honor  to  command  the  tall  Grenadiers  of 
Potsdam.  Every  day  he  attended  the  parade  and  drills. 
He  submitted  to  all  the  regulations.  Once,  in  the 
spring,  he  ordered  all  the  regiments,  company  by  com- 
pany, to  be  bled ;  he  was  bled  first,  in  the  open  air,  and 
in  weather  cold  enough  to  snow.  Another  time,  he  was 
at  Berlin,  very  ill ;  a  colonel  said  by  chance  before 
him,  "that  to-morrow  is  the  day  that  all  the  colonels 


THE    FATHER.  73 

on  leave  of  absence  must  rejoin  their  regiments."  The 
following  day,  notwithstanding  the  entreaties  of  the 
physicians,  he  would  set  out.  He  was  seen  to  pass 
through  the  city,  his  body  wrapped  up,  and  his  head 
covered  with  a  nightcap,  over  which  he  had  placed  a  fur 
cap.  Arriving  at  the  gates,  he  was  lifted  into  a  chaise, 
in  which  they  had  spread  out  a  mattress.42 

It  is  at  Potsdam  that  the  Prussian  drill  is  carried  to 
perfection.  The  new  movements,  the  reforms  in  the 
maneuvers,  are  tested  there  before  being  adopted. 
From  the  whole  army  delegations  of  officers  are  sent  to 
be  instructed,  as  the  Crown  Prince  said  later,  at  "The 
University  of  Potsdam."  It  is  there  that  they  see  how 
the  infantry,  through  extreme  care  given  to  every  de- 
tail and  untiring  patience,  is  so  well-trained  "that  it 
charges  with  the  greatest  rapidity,  advances  in  serried 
ranks,  presents  arms  well,  sees  everything  as  well  under 
fire  as  in  the  most  profound  silence."  To  bring  the 
army  to  this  perfection  the  king  employed  grand  re- 
views and  inspections.  He  was  the  Inspector  General  of 
the  Prussian  army.  Every  year,  in  the  month  of  May, 
he  reviewed  the  garrison  of  Berlin,  that  is  to  say,  six 
regiments  of  infantry,  a  regiment  of  dragoons  and  six 
squadrons  of  hussars.  Each  regiment  or  each  squad- 
ron had  its  day.  Each  one  of  the  companies  was 
ranged  in  four  files,  between  which  the  king  passed. 
He  examined  the  men,  one  by  one,  addressing  a  few 
words  to  most  of  them:  "My  son,  dost  thou  receive 
exactly  what  is  due  thee?"  Or  perhaps:  "How  dost 
thou  like  our  service  ? "  And  he  listened  courteously 
to  complaints,    particularly  when    he  found   things    in 


74  FREDERICK   THE    GREAT. 

order,  and  that  no  one  had  made  a  mistake  in  the  fifty- 
four  movements  that  comprised  the  drill.  The  last  day, 
after  all  these  special  reviews,  came  the  general  review. 
The  king  mounted  his  horse  at  2  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing, and,  except  for  a  few  moments  of  repose  at  the 
breakfast  hour,  he  remained  in  the  saddle  until  evening. 
The  inspections  were  repeated  in  the  provinces  and  thus 
ended  these  great  military  examinations.  The  reviews 
were  frequent  and  unexpected.  By  them  the  king 
ascertained  what  was  passing  everywhere,  "as  if  I  were 
present,"  said  he, —  "als  Ich  bestandig  ware,"  and  the 
garrisons  were  always  in  the  condition  of  a  troop  that 
had  an  enemy  at  hand  or  were  expecting  one. 

He  watched  assiduously  his  corps  of  officers.  In  the 
reviews  and  inspections,  wherever  he  met  them,  they 
had  to  be  presented,  or  he  accosted  them ;  he  talked 
with  them,  requiring  that  they  should  look  at  him  as  he 
looked  at  them,  straight  in  the  eyes.  He  consulted 
their  conduct  list,  the  Conduiten  Z/iste,  which  kept  an 
exact  account  of  their  virtues  and  vices,  of  their 
good  and  bad  qualities.  He  was  the  censor  of  their 
morals  and  habits  ;  he  forbade  them  «  <  to  bedeck  the 
livery  of  their  domestics  with  gold  and  silver,"  and 
ordered  them  always  to  wear  their  uniform.  He  was 
very  severe  upon  those  who  "kept  no  account  of  their 
purse "  and  ran  into  debt.  He  prohibited  the  luxuries 
of  the  table:  "Of  what  use  is  so  much  ceremony?  .  .  . 
A  glass  of  beer  ought  to  be  just  as  acceptable  as  a  glass 
of  wine."  He  inquired  into  their  religious  sentiments, 
for  he  wished  his  officers  to  be  just  as  good  Christians 
as  good  soldiers.43  In  a  word,  he  recommended  as  a  model 


THE    FATHER.  75 

the  Colonel  of  the  1st  Regiment  of  the  Potsdam  Grena- 
diers. He  centered  upon  himself  all  their  attention. 
He  gave  such  a  good  tone  to  this  corps  of  officers  and 
to  all  the  army,  that  his  successors,  even  to-day,  repeat 
his  commands  word  for  word. 

Let  us  now  consider  that  the  army  of  the  King  of 
Prussia  was  augmented  from  38,459  men  to  44,792  dur- 
ing the  year  of  the  accession,  in  1713  ;  to  53,999  in  1719; 
to  69,892  in  1729;  to  83,486  in  1739.  Now,  France 
had  160,000  soldiers,  Austria  hardly  100,000;  the 
French  army  was  divided  into  numerous  garrisons  ;  the 
Austrian  army  scattered  over  its  vast  provinces. 
Neither  the  Austrian  nor  even  the  French  army  was  so 
well  organized,  armed,  equipped  as  that  of  the  King  of 
Prussia ;  finally,  in  Prussia,  the  service  of  the  few  for- 
tresses required  not  more  than  10,000  men.  Thus  70,- 
000  men,  at  a  low  estimate,  were  always  ready  for  the 
march, —  marschbereit,  ready  for  battle, — schlagfertig. 

THE    INACTION    OF   THE    KING    OF    PRUSSIA. 

Here  lies  the  explanation  of  the  future,  for  Frederick 
William  did  not  make  use  of  this  power,  and  that  is  one 
of  the  incomprehensible  things  of  his  history.  Twice 
he  took  up  arms ;  at  the  beginning  of  his  reign,  against 
Sweden ;  near  the  end,  against  France,  in  the  contro- 
versy about  the  Polish  Succession.  Still,  he  did  not 
enter  into  any  engagement  without  anguish  of  heart. 

It  is  true  that  he  reigned  in  a  period  of  peace,  and 
that  the  great  occasion  for  testing  the  metal  of  his  army 
did  not  arise;  but  all  Europe,  at  that  time,  was  thought 
to  be  every  day  on  the  eve  of  war.   They  fought  in  nego- 


76  FREDERICK   THE    GREAT. 

tiations,  they  grouped  themselves  in  leagues  and  coun- 
ter-leagues. Scarcely  had  the  great  question  of  the  Span- 
ish Succession  been  settled  by  the  Treaties  of  Utrecht, 
Rastadt  and  Baden,  when  Spain,  in  order  to  regain  her 
lost  territories,  attacked  Austria:  France,  England,  Hol- 
land and  Austria  coalesced  against  the  aggressor. 

While  Europe  sought  to  reconcile  Spain  and  Austria, 
in  the  interest  of  the  latter,  Austria,  violating  her  alle- 
giance, came  to  a  direct  understanding  with  Spain 
against  her  mediators.  Then  France  and  England,  up  to 
that  time  allied  to  Austria  against  Spain,  entered  into  a 
league  against  Spain  and  Austria.  After  some  hostili- 
ties, Europe  began  to  negotiate.  This  time  Spain  aban- 
doned her  ally,  Austria,  who  was  obliged  to  yield  to  the 
will  of  Europe.  At  last,  when  Stanislas  Lecszinski 
had  been  driven  from  Poland  by  the  Russians,  France 
declared  war  against  Austria,  who  was  the  accomplice 
of  Russia:  this  Polish  affair  was  terminated  by  a  treaty 
which  gave  to  the  King  of  Poland  a  duchy  in  France,  to 
the  Duke  of  Lorraine  a  duchy  in  Italy,  and  to  the  In- 
fante of  Spain  the  Kingdom  of  Naples.  There  was 
then  such  a  strange  chasse-croise  of  negotiations  and  in- 
trigues that  one  would  think,  as  Lord  Chesterfield  said, 
"that  all  Europe  was  going  crazy." 

Frederick  William,  who  was  often  solicited  by  these 
makers  of  leagues  aud  counter-leagues,  did  not  know 
how  to  figure  gracefully  in  their  quadrilles.  To  take 
into  consideration  only  his  great  political  intrigues,  one 
sees  him,  in  1725,  adhering  to  the  union  concluded  at 
Hanover,  of  France  and  England  against  Austria;  then 
hardly  a  year  elapses  before  he  is  united  with  Austria; 


THE    FATHER.  77 

he  persists  long  enough  in  this  alliance;  but  finally  he 
treats  with  France,  and  always  wishes  to  undo  what  he 
has  done,  after  he  has  given  his  word. 

Then  followed  the  uprising  of  Europe.  Epigrams 
from  all  sides  rained  down  upon  him.  "The  King  of 
Prussia,"  said  the  English,  "is  only  a  wolf  in  his  own 
sheepfold;"  one  after  the  other,  the  French  ambassadors 
residing  at  his  Court  "affirmed  that  he  would  not  make 
war."  They  wrote:  "The  insatiable  desire  that  he  has 
for  soldiery  will  make  him  always  keep  up  a  large  army; 
but  his  timidity  will  constantly  oppose  the  execution  of 
all  engagements  that  he  could  undertake  to  put  this 
army  into  action.  These  are  two  principles  upon  which 
one  can  rely."  "He  will  be  brave  enough  up  to  hold- 
ing the  sword,"  but  will  be  always  restrained  from  go- 
ing farther  by  "the  love  which  he  has  for  his  big  men, 
that  are  only  for  parades,  and  whom  he  will  never  ex- 
pose to  danger."  Then  follow  reproaches  of  inconstancy 
and  changeableness.  "He  is"  (according  to  his  own 
servitors),  "a  prince  without  plan,  without  system,  who 
goes  by  fits  and  starts,  passing  from  one  extreme  to 
another."  A  French  Minister,  obliged  to  transmit  to  his 
government  these  contradictory  statements  week  after 
week,  wondered  "how  any  faith  could  be  placed  in 
these  dispatches."  "The  variable  moods  of  the  King 
of  Prussia  and  his  profound  dissimulation,"  wrote  the 
ambassador  to  Louis  XV.,  "are  infinitely  above  all  that 
Your  Majesty  can  imagine."  This  same  official,  who 
at  that  time  was  the  most  favored  by  the  king,  and 
charged  by  him  to  express  the  most  affectionate  senti- 
ments toward  his  country,  added:   "The  faith   that    I 


78  FREDERICK   THE    GREAT. 

owe  to  my  country  and  king  obliges  me  to  repeat  that 
one  can  never  count  upon  the  King  of  Prussia  in  any  im- 
portant matter."  After  which  he  quoted  the  words  of 
Peter  the  Great  in  regard  to  Frederick  William:  "He 
likes  to  fish  well  enough,  but  without  wTetting  his  feet."44 

Facts  seem  to  justify  these  accusations.  Scarcely  does 
Frederick  William  put  his  foot  in  camp  before  he  be 
comes  restless,  and  evinces  a  strong  desire  to  retire. 
He  hardly  enters  the  league  of  Hanover  with  France  and 
England  before  he  becomes  * '  worn  out  with  these  en- 
gagements." He  goes  over  to  the  Emperor's  side;  he  re- 
grets it,  wavers,  favors  the  Minister  of  France,  tries  to 
extenuate  himself  in  the  eyes  of  his  former  allies  for  the 
gravity  of  the  new  treaty,  and  cavils  with  the  Emperor 
in  every  way:  "My  God  !  "  he  cried,  "  I  will  not  go  so 
far, — Mein  Gott  !  So  weit  will  ich  nicht  gehen." 

He  liked  to  see  all  Europe  on  fire;  to  have  it  break 
out  some  place,  and  spread  over  the  whole  continent.  In 
1727  Spain,  allied  to  Austria,  attacks  Gibraltar:  this 
is  the  beginning  of  a  conflagration.  The  king  exults, 
but  diplomacy  deluges  with  water  the  brazier:  he  be- 
comes very  much  distressed  "at  the  appearances  of  a  set- 
tlement," which  will  prevent  him  from  "fishing  in  the 
troubled  waters."  When  he  learns  of  the  signing  of 
the  preliminaries  at  Paris  he  humiliates  and  mortifies 
the  imperial  ambassador,  saying  that  his  master  "should 
have  kept  him  from  bragging  in  that  way,  and  should 
have  consented  to  everything,  and  that  he  would 
always  be  Charles  the  Stammerer."  He  has  ever  the  ap- 
pearance of  being  ready  to  set  out  on  a  war  expedition: 
•'Let  us  grease  our  boots,"  he  writes  in  1729.      "I  am 


THE    FATHER.  79 

persuaded  that  there  is  no  other  means  to  end  all  this 
but  to  give  them  a  good  whipping." 

However,  if  he  saw  war  approaching  him,  he  would 
be  in  mortal  terror.  At  the  time  that  he  was  allied  to 
France  and  England  he  feared  that  these  two  powers 
would  abandon  him,  "so  that  upon  my  head  alone 
would  fall  the  wrath  of  the  Emperor  and  Empire,  and 
destroy  me  and  my  family."  Allied  to  Austria  against 
France,  he  feared  being  burned  and  pillaged  by  the 
French  and  Swedes.  One  moment,  to  settle  divers  quar- 
rels, he  seemed  ready  to  throw  himself  like  mad  upon 
Hanover,  but  he  learned  this  country  was  in  a  good  state 
of  defense.  Then  he  became  uneasy,  hesitated,  finally 
had  a  fit  of  anger,  and,  to  calm  himself,  got  on  a 
"spree"  of  several  days'  duration,  with  the  "  officers 
who  participated  in  his  debaucheries."45  Why  would  not 
Europe  at  last  believe  that  he  loved  his  soldiers  only  for 
parade?  At  last,  in  1734,  when  he  sent  his  troops  to 
join  the  imperial  army  on  the  Rhine,  he  prescribed  that 
they  were  to  make  but  two  miles  per  day,  three  at  the 
most ;  that  they  were  to  rest  the  fourth  day ;  never  to 
break  up,  never  to  be  inclosed  in  fortresses,  and  that 
after  each  campaign  they  were  to  go  into  winter  quar- 
ters,—  good  winter  quarters,  of  six  months'  duration. 

However,  it  would  be  absurd  to  accuse  Frederick  Will- 
iam of  cowardice,  for  they  certainly  meant  to  say  cow- 
ardice when  they  wrote  timidity.  He  liked  to  recall 
that  he  had  tested  his  bravery,  under  the  eye  of  God,  at 
Malplaquet,  "where  he  had  seen  hundreds  fall  at  right 
and  left."  He  expressed  his  true  thought  when  he 
added  that  he  "]oved  nothing:  in  the  world  better  than 


80  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

war,"  and  that  "his  feet  burned  when  doing  nothing."46 
As  to  his  dissimulation  and  duplicity,  they  were  infant- 
ile in  comparison  with  that  of  the  other  Courts  of 
Europe,  particularly  Austria. 

The  explanation  of  his  conduct  is  a  curious  chapter  of 
political  psychology. 

Frederick  William  is  both  Elector  in  the  Empire  and 
King  of  Prussia,  which  is  not  a  country  of  the  Empire. 
He  belongs  to  Germany,  where  he  has  duties,  and  he  is 
a  sovereign  of  Europe,  like  the  King  of  France  and  the 
King  of  England.  He  finds  within  himself  two  person- 
ages, who  will  necessarily  conflict  with  each  other. 

One  of  his  refrains  was,  that  an  Emperor  was  neces- 
sary to  Germany :  ein  deutscher  Kaiser  solle  unci  milsse 
bleiben,  and  that  he  himself  was  a  good  imperialist,  gut 
Kaiserlich  gesinnt.  "All  of  my  blue  coats  are  at  the 
service  of  the  Emperor,"  said  he.  .  .  .  "All  of  the 
German  princes  must  be  of  the  canaille  if  they  do  not 
profess  good  sentiments  toward  the  Emperor  and  Em- 
pire;  I  would  be  of  the  canaille  myself  if  I  did  not. 
We  must  have  an  Emperor ;  let  us  then  be  faithful  to 
the  House  of  Austria,  it  is  the  duty  of  every  honest  Ger- 
man. .  .  ."  He  expressed  his  fidelity  in  the  strongest 
terms:  "For  his  Imperial  Majesty,  for  his  House,  and 
for  his  interest,  I  would  sacrifice  with  pleasure,  my 
blood,  my  possessions,  my  country.  Before  I  sever  my 
connection  with  the  Emperor,  he  must  repulse  me  with 
his  foot."47  But,  let  us  listen  to  the  other  side  of  the 
story.  If  he  wished  to  sustain  a  German  Emperor,  it 
was  on  condition  that  his  sovereignty  to  such  an  Emperor 
should  remain  intact.     He  was  the  onlv  one   who  could 


THE    FATHER.  81 

maintain  power  and  he  did  not  permit  the  Emperor  to 
exercise  over  him  the  authority  of  a  supreme  judge. 
The  appeals  of  his  subjects  carried  before  His  Imperial 
Majesty,  although  they  may  have  been  perfectly  consti- 
tutional and  legal,  put  him  beside  himself.  He  wished 
to  break  this  latter  tie  that  connected  him  with  the  Em- 
pire: "Our  interest,  as  well  as  that  of  France,"  said  his 
ministers,  "is  that  there  may  not  be  any  Emperor  after 
this  one ;  but,  if  it  is  necessary  to  have  one,  let  him  be 
a  weak  prince,  incapable  of  having  his  commands  exe- 
cuted, and  one  with  no  more  authority  than  the  Doge  of 
Venice."48 

These  two  personages,  the  German  Prince  and  the  King 
of  Prussia,  agreed  then  to  the  contract  that  the  first 
should  never  thwart  the  second,  who  was  a  very  sensible 
man.  There  was  the  same  play  in  foreign  policy,  but 
still  more  complicated,  for  Frederick  William  recognized 
in  the  Emperor  Charles  VI.,  as  in  himself,  two  person- 
ages :  the  Chief  of  the  Holy  Empire,  and  the  Head  of 
the  House  of  Hapsburg,  to  whom  European  treaties 
gave  possessions  outside  of  Germany,  in  the  Netherlands 
and  in  Italy.  If  the  Chief  of  the  Empire  were  attacked 
within  the  Empire,  Frederick  William  owed  him  aid  and 
rescue,  and  he  would  fulfill  that  duty.  He  did  not  wish 
foreigners  to  mix  in  German  affairs,  nor  to  touch  German 
soil.  "No  Frenchman  or  Englishman  must  command 
us  Germans.  I  will  place  pistols  and  swords  in  the  cra- 
dle of  my  children  to  aid  them  in  ridding  Germany  of 
foreign  nations."  Or,  again:  "If  the  French  attack  a 
German  village,  the  German  prince  who  would  not  pour 
out  his  blood  to  the  last  drop  in  defending  it,  would  be  a 


82  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

Kujon"  In  milder  but  very  firm  tones  he  called  to  mind 
his  patriotism  on  all  occasions  before  the  Ministers  of 
France:  "I  cannot  suffer  them  to  carry  the  torch  into 
my  Empire.  I  must,  and  my  conscience  obliges  me  to 
do  so,  employ  all  my  strength  to  defend  the  country.  .  . 
As  Prince  of  the  Empire,  and  good  patriot,  I  could  not 
prevent  you  Frenchmen  from  trying,  if  you  wished,  to 
overthrow  Germany.  .  .  .  Leave  our  Holy  Empire 
in  peace,  I  pray  you."  "Frenchman,"  (it  was  to  La 
Chetardie  he  spoke),  "do  not  be  astonished  to  see  the 
king  fall  again  into  the  Germanism  from  which  he  can 
never  be  withdrawn."  One  of  Frederick  William's  min- 
isters, Grumbkow,  then  about  to  allow  himself  to  be 
bought  over  by  France,  deplored  this  mania  of  his 
master:  "We  have  to  do  with  a  prince  who,  with  much 
mind  and  ability  in  certain  directions,  in  others,  absorbs 
himself  in  ideas  of  Germanism,  whence  the  devil 
cannot  withdraw  him."  This  was,  in  fact,  one  of  this 
prince's  traits  of  character :  he  was  a  German,  a  good 
German,  and  it  was  with  all  his  heart  that  he  cried  out 
at  table :  <  <  Long  live  the  Germany  of  the  German 
Nation, —  Vivat  Germania  dentscher  Nation  /"  But  this 
German  saw  nothing  in  the  affairs  of  the  Emperor  out- 
side of  Germany ;  that  was  why,  at  the*  same  time  that 
he  prayed  the  Frenchman  to  leave  his  Holy  Empire  in 
peace,  he  added  :  "Run  down  the  Emperor  and  Imperial- 
ists of  Italy,  if  you  will ;  the  devil  take  me,  if  I  send 
a  man  there."  He  even  advised  the  conquest  of  the 
Netherlands  and  Italy:  "You  will  render  a  service  to 
His  Imperial  Majesty,  to  whom  these  countries  are  a 
heavy  burden."49 


THE    FATHER.  83 

In  virtue  of  these  distinguo^  which  were  things  that 
appertained  to  the  Qermany  of  former  times,  it  hap- 
pened that  Frederick  William  could  be  at  one  and  the 
same  time,  for  and  against  the  Emperor.  When  he  be- 
came allied  to  France  and  England,  in  1725,  he  reserved 
to  himself  the  right  to  furnish  to  the  Emperor  the  con- 
tingent that  he  owed,  in  his  quality  of  Elector,  at  the 
same  time  that  he  assisted  the  King  of  France  with  the 
number  of  troops  fixed  by  the  treaty.  It  certainly  is  to 
be  regretted  that  this  clause  had  not  been  put  into 
action,  and  that  Europe  had  not  witnessed  this  spectacle 
of  the  King  of  Prussia  fighting  the  Elector  of  Bran- 
denburg. 

Let  us  suppose  the  engagement  of  this  combat.  To 
which  one  will  Frederick  William  keep  his  vows  ?  Ev- 
idently to  the  King  of  Prussia.  If  the  issue  depends 
upon  him,  the  Elector  of  Brandenburg  will  be  beaten 
in  company  with  the  Emperor,  while  the  King  of 
Prussia  and  his  allies  will  come  off  victorious. 
Here  is  shown  the  contradiction  in  which  Frederick 
William  was  embroiled  all  his  life.  It  was  not  so  easy 
to  distinguish  the  Emperor  from  the  Empire.  To  say 
nothing  of  Frederick  William  waiting,  hoping,  as  every- 
body did,  for  the  death  of  his  "very  dear  friend,"  the 
Emperor  Charles  VI.,  and  that  he  was  amused  and 
laughed  beforehand  at  the  embarrassment  that  would 
befall  the  illustrious  Archducal  House.  Charles  VI. 
dead,  Germany  would  elect  the  Emperor  that  she  wished, 
and  the  House  of  Hapsburg  would  cease  to  be  more  sa- 
cred than  any  other  in  the  eyes  of  the  King  of  Prussia ! 
But  when  the  latter  said  to  the  Minister  of    France : 


84  FREDERICK   THE    GREAT. 

uWe  will  inter  the  Emperor  in  great  pomp,  in  pontifi- 
calibus.  .  .  We  will  see  a  fine  charivari ;  the  mate- 
rial will  be  ample,  and  there  will  be  enough  for  each  one 
to  cut  himself  out  a  jacket."50  He  ought  to  have  known 
that  the  foreign  powers  would  try  to  cut  into  the  mate- 
rial, and  that  there  would  be  a  great  probability  of  their 
attacking  at  least  "  a  village  of  Germany."  Frederick 
William  thus  forgot  more  than  once  his  Germanism. 
One  day,  while  at  parade,  as  the  French  Minister,  on 
horseback  near  him,  congratulated  him  upon  the  fine  con- 
dition of  his  troops,  and  upon  the  "skillful,  warlike  air 
that  they  had,"  he  replied:  "I  am  charmed  that  you  find 
them  so  good,  since  they  are  absolutely  at  the  service  of 
the  King  of  France.  Be  so  kind  as  to  inform  him  of 
it.  .  .  .  When  it  so  pleases  France  I  am  ready  to  beat 
the  drum."51  Twice  he  repeated  this  expression.  Finally 
he  allowed  himself  to  recall,  in  the  treaty  of  1725,  "that 
France  is  guarantee  for  the  treaty  of  Westphalia," 
and  that  "she  interests  herself  particularly  in  the  Ger- 
manic liberty,"  and  it  was  as  a  guarantee  for  this  peace, 
as  protectress  of  this  liberty,  that  France  had  maintained 
anarchy  in  Germany  in  order  to  assure  herself  tranquil- 
lity, and  hold  her  pre-eminence  in  Europe. 

However,  would  Frederick  William  have  imitated  the 
German  princes  of  former  times,  who  were  the  slaves  of 
French  policy,  and  the  enemies  of  their  own  country  ? 
Not  at  all.  One  can  affirm  that,  if  the  Coalitionists  of 
Hanover  had  made  war  on  the  Emperor,  he  would  have 
left  the  alliance  at  the  first  German  village  burned.  He 
treated  with  the  Emperor's  enemies;  but  said  :  "It  was 
only  to  annoy  and  force  him  to  make  propositions  to 


THE    FATHER.  85 

me."  If  the  House  of  Austria  had  had  the  wisdom  of 
paying  his  blue  coats  by  giving  him  some  of  the  satis- 
faction he  desired,  Frederick  William  would  have  still 
remained  the  faithful  ally  of  Charles  VI.  The  King  of 
Prussia  being  contented,  the  Elector  of  Brandenburg 
would  have  done  his  duty.  But  Austria  had  no  more 
regard  for  him  than  if  he  had  been  "a  prince  of  Zipfel 
Zerbst."  The  King  of  Prussia  being  discontented,  how- 
ever, the  Elector  of  Brandenburg52  would  have  been  com- 
pelled to  keep  quiet,  and  Frederick  would  have  sacrificed 
everything  in  order  to  bring  down  upon  the  Emperor  a 
terrible  vengeance. 

He  surely  must  have  been  faithless,  since  he  makes 
engagements  with  the  intention  of  never  keeping  them. 
He  prides  himself  upon  having  put  in  his  treaty  with 
the  Emperor  "more  than  sixty  restrictions  and  equivoca- 
tions to  get  out  of  it ; "  but  it  must  not  be  forgotten,  if 
one  wishes  to  be  just  toward  him,  that  his  duplicity 
came,  in  part,  from  his  being  double. 53 

As  King  of  Prussia,  his  policy  was  entirely  simple  and 
connected:  he  wished  to  enlarge  Prussia.  He  had,  or 
believed  he  had,  rights  over  the  Duchies  of  Berg  and  Ju- 
liers:  he  demanded  these  rights  to  be  recognized.  With- 
out shame,  he  sold  himself  to  the  highest  bidder:  "I 
will  not  give  myself  for  pears  and  apples."  He  had  a 
charming  way  of  accepting  offers.  When  France  pro- 
posed Elbing  to  him,  on  condition  that  he  recognized 
Stanislas  Lecszinski  as  King  of  Poland,  he  wrote  on  the 
margin  of  the  French  dispatch:  "Finally,  I  will  say, 
like  the  late  Queen  Anne  of  Austria  :  *  Cardinal,  you  are 
so   persuasive   that   I    am  obliged  to   succumb  to  your 


86  FREDERICK   THE    GREAT. 

wishes.'"  If  he  regretted  engagements  as  soon  as  he 
made  them,  it  was  because  he  believed  that,  being  free, 
he  would  find  the  occasion  for  a  better  scheme.  At  the 
time  of  the  commencement  of  the  War  of  the  Polish 
Succession,  he  confessed  his  chagrin  at  being  united  to 
the  Emperor:  "  My  position  should  be  to-day,  such  as 
would  give  me  the  most  realistic  advantages."  This 
was  not  duplicity  ;  there  was  nothing  simpler  in  the 
world. 

Frederick  William  had  such  a  guileless  heart  that  he 
understood  nothing  of  the  affairs  of  diplomacy.  In  it, 
he  brought  to  play  passion  and  childish  caprice.  He 
had  the  good  fortune  to  be  Elector  and  King  at  the  same 
time :  he  did  not  like  others  to  have  the  same  priv- 
ileges. It  displeased  him  that  the  Elector  of  Saxony 
was  scheming  to  be  King  of  Poland,  and  the  Elector 
of  Hanover  King  of  England.  Literally,  it  made 
him  jealous  to  see  the  Hanoverians  "  cut  such  a  fine  fig- 
ure in  the  world,"  and  he  was  grieved  at  their  prosper- 
ous condition. 5i  He  knew  George  II.  at  the  time  when 
he  was  but  the  grandson  of  an  Elector  of  Hanover  ;  he 
played  with  him,  he  even  beat  him:  he  could  not  bear 
that  this  gamin  should  become  so  great  a  prince,  and  lord 
it  over  him.  He  called  him  "my  dear  brother,  the  come- 
dian," or  "my  dear  brother,  the  red-cabbage."  He  used 
such  abusive  language  toward  him  that  it  will  not  bear 
repetition.  As  to  Augustus  of  Poland,  he  never  called 
him  anything  but  "the  clothes-peg."  His  manner  of 
venting  his  ill  humor  on  these  princes  was  strictly  in- 
fantile. He  broke  up  a  service  of  china  with  a  cane, 
because  it  was  Saxony-ware,  and  came  from  the  King  of 


THE    FATHER.  87 

Poland.  Sick,  and  angrily  rehearsing  again  and  again 
his  trials  with  England,  he  remembered  that  he  had  in 
his  stable  a  horse  that  had  been  given  him  by  the  King 
of  England  ;  he  ordered  this  animal  to  be  turned  out. 
He  was  advised  to  give  it,  instead,  to  Prince  Anhalt, 
"the  enemy  of  everything  English."  He  consented,  and 
thought  that  he  would  in  this  way  be  well  revenged. 
At  another  time,  he  refused  passports  for  wood  destined 
for  England. 55 

One  cannot,  without  placing  in  it  some  restrictions,  call 
a  man  treacherous  who  so  freely  published  his  senti- 
ments. Europe  knew  what  he  thought;  he  cried  it  out. 
Upon  each  and  every  thing,  he  expressed  himself  with 
absolute  freedom.  At  his  Imperial  Majesty  he  laughed 
"immoderately,"  and  said:  "He  has  not  a  sou,  he  is 
poor  as  a  painter.  This  is  the  ....  economy  of 
the  Court  of  Vienna."  In  the  smoking-room,  at  table, 
he  was  never  without  pipe  or  glass.  If  he  was  content 
with  the  Emperor,  he  drank  three  consecutive  times  to 
His  Majesty,  draining  it  to  the  last  drop.  And  he  tired 
the  Imperial  Minister  with  these  healths,  and  this  before 
the  French  Minister,  although  he  did  not  drink  to  the 
King  of  France  for  an  hour  and  a  half,  nor  honor 
poor  La  Chetardie  with  the  shortest  toast.  Another 
day,  he  would  drink  to  the  King  of  France,  and  omit  the 
health  of  the  Emperor.  He  gave  France  more  than  one 
caress,  and  always  took  care  to  treat  her  circumspectly, 
but  he  hated  her,  and  could  not  hide  it.  The  first  time 
he  received  La  Chetardie,  as  was  his  custom,  he  intei- 
viewed  him  upon  everything, —  the  French  troops, 
French  game,  the  wine  of  Champagne,  the  marshals,  the 


88  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

weak  points  of  Magdeburg,  Molinism,  Jansenism, 
Parliament,  and  then,  suddenly  beginning  to  talk 
through  his  nose,  "Why,"  asked  he  of  La  Chetardie, 
"were  the  Frenchmen  of  the  olden  times  so  grave  and 
stately,  and  to-day,  they  are  nearly  all  comedians  ?  " 56 

In  foreign  politics,  as  in  government,  the  King  of 
Prussia  acted  with  the  easy-going  fashion  of  a  free  indi- 
vidual. He  was  not  a  Chief  of  State  who  had  inter- 
course with  other  States;  he  was  a  disagreeable,  foul- 
mouthed  person,  who  carried  on  his  business  with  other 
persons.  One  of  his  ministers  has  well  defined  his  man- 
ner: "To  have  a  correct  idea  of #his  sentiments  in  re- 
gard to  England,  consider  him  as  an  individual  who 
takes  his  revenge  at  the  risk  of  being  hung."  Frederick 
William  knew  well  his  own  infirmity.  One  day  he 
acknowledged  it  to  his  son:  "Follow  the  example  of 
thy  father,"  said  he  to  the  Crown  Prince,  "in  finance 
and  in  military  affairs ;  do  better  still  when  thou  shalt 
be  master  .  .  .;"  then,  giving  him  a  little  friendly 
slap:  "Take  care  not  to  imitate  him  in  what  is  called 
ministerial  affairs,  for  he  understands  nothing  about 
that."57  For  this  reason  he  did  not  like  to  negotiate  him- 
self. He  could  not  help  saying  what  he  thought:  "It 
is  stronger  than  I,"  said  he.  He  was  so  incapable  of 
diplomatic  politeness  that  he  reproached  the  Ministers 
of  France  and  Austria  at  his  Court  for  not  disputing 
like  "street  arabs."  One  day,  in  an  audience  given  to 
an  Envoy  Extraordinary  from  England,  he  threw  upon 
the  ground  a  paper  that  this  personage  presented  to  him, 
and  turned  his  back.  Another  day  he  received  the  Min- 
ister of  Holland,  whose  propositions  displeased  him  ;  he 


THE    FATHER.  89 

left  the  room  as  if  in  sudden  haste  for  something.  The 
Holland  Minister  waited  respectfully,  but  at  the  end  of 
half  an  hour  he  descended  into  the  court-yard,  where 
he  learned  His  Majesty  had  gone  off  on  horseback. 

His  conversation  disconcerted  the  diplomats.  He  led 
his  interlocutor  from  Muscovia  to  Gibraltar,  "from  Gib- 
raltar to  the  Netherlands,  then  back  finally  to  Port-Ma- 
li on,  so  as  to  pass  suddenly  to  Constantinople,  and  return 
to  Vienna."  He  had  no  fixed  ideas  except  in  the  care  of 
his  own  interests. 

He  interrupted  dissertations  by  one  of  his  refrains  : 
"Good  for  a  few  shovelfuls  of  sand,"  meaning  to  say 
that  he  "loved  to  acquire  new  territories  for  the  ag- 
grandizement of  his  estates."  To  attain  them,  he  would 
never  do  anything  that  was  necessary ;  but,  to  gratify 
him  in  this  respect,  the  others  had  to  run  all  the  risks, 
he  alone  drawing  out  the  profit.  It  was  thus  that  his 
accredited  Ministers,  when  near  him,  were  the  most  un- 
happy diplomats.  Berlin  was  their  purgatory,  their 
hell.  Rottenburg  would  rather  have  become  a  "Carthu- 
sian" than  remain  longer  at  this  Court.  The  Austrian 
Seckendorff,  himself,  the  favorite,  the  indispensable 
companion  at  table  and  in  the  smoking-room,  did  not 
relish  it  either.  Someone  met  him  on  the  street  in  Ber- 
lin, and,  surprised  to  see  him  there  while  the  King  was  at 
Potsdam,  asked  him  what  he  was  doing:  "Alas!"  said 
he,  "I  am  like  the  servants  in  the  Gospel.  I  remain 
when  they  tell  me  to  remain ;  I  depart  when  they  tell 
me  to  depart.  .  .  If  the  Emperor  would  give  me  a 
province  for  another  year's  service,  the  devil  take  me  if 
I  would  accept."58 


90  FREDERICK   THE    GREAT. 

The  king  returned  the  sentiments  that  the  diplomats 
expressed  toward  him.  He  did  not  like  to  see  them, 
and  would  oftener  send  them  to  his  ministers,  who 
would  receive  them  in  conference,  four  around  a 
table,  and  one  of  them  holding  a  pen.  You  would 
think  it  was  "a  tribunal  of  the  Inquisition,  where  a 
secretary  reduced  ad  protocolum,  on  the  instant,  the 
most  insignificant  speech."  The  report  was  forwarded 
to  the  king,  with  the  counsel,  which  he  accepted  or  not, 
as  it  pleased  him.  He  distrusted  his  ministers,  and  he 
had  reason;  nearly  every  one  of  them  betrayed  him; 
some  sold  themselves  to  France,  and  others  to  Austria. 
He  did  not  know  just  how  far  they  betrayed  him ;  but, 
of  their  treachery,  which  exceeded  almost  the  improba- 
ble, he  did  not  doubt.  One  of  the  most  extraordinary 
traits  of  this  prince  was  his  absolute  indifference  to  the 
infidelity  of  his  agents,  in  foreign  political  matters. 
He  wrote  upon  the  report  of  one  minister:  "You 
are  too  fond  of  guineas;"  on  the  report  of  another: 
"You  are  too  fond  of  louis',"  but  he  dismissed 
neither  the  one  nor  the  other.  It  even  pleased  him  that 
these  "Mazarins,"  as  he  said,  received  from  foreign  sov- 
ereigns, what  La  Chetardie  called  "tokens  of  sentiment 
and  essential  proofs  of  gratitude."  "I  am  aware,"  said 
he,  "that  many  of  my  people  are  bribed  by  France,  and 
I  know  them  all.  Well  and  good  !  If  France  wishes 
to  be  so  foolish  as  to  give  them  pensions,  they  have  but 
to  accept.  The  money  will  remain  in  the  country,  and 
they  and  their  children  will  spend  it.  .  .  .  but  they 
deceive  themselves  if  they  think  they  can  lead  me  by  the 
nose."     One  would  suppose  that  he  saw  in  these  treach- 


THE    FATHER.  91 

eries  but  a  means  of  importing  hard  cash.  Besides,  he 
arranged  to  have  always  two  parties  in  his  Ministry. 
One  day  he  received,  very  gruffly,  the  Imperialists,  who 
asked  to  have  an  Anglo-French  colleague  dismissed. 
He  would  listen  to  first  one  party  and  then  the  other, 
and  reserve  to  himself  the  decision,  which  was,  in  sub- 
stance, always  this:  not  to  risk  anything,  nor  to  act.59 
What  were  the  true  reasons  for  this  ?  There  seem  to 
have  been  several.  It  certainly  must  have  cost  the  King 
of  Prussia  very  much  to  expose  to  peril  such  fine  sol- 
diers, so  well  clothed  and  well  equipped,  and  so 
perfect  in  the  drill  a  la  Prussian.  We  also  know  that 
the  least  displacing  of  troops  interfered  with  the  compu- 
tations of  his  receivers  and  the  exact  proportion  of  re- 
ceipts and  expenses ;  the  surplus  that  he  had  to  make 
each  year  was  endangered,  lost  perhaps,  replaced  really 
by  a  deficit.  But,  on  the  same  conditions  that  he  would 
have  risked  a  capital,  when  he  had  the  hope  of  drawing 
from  it  a  fine  interest,  Frederick  William  would  have 
risked  his  soldiers,  if  he  had  seen  a  way  of  gaining  a 
province.  Now,  he  knew  that  no  one  was  sincerely  dis- 
posed to  come  to  his  aid,  and  he  would,  at  the  decisive 
hour,  find  himself  alone  against  all.  The  inheritance 
of  Juliers  and  Berg  was  the  principal  object  of  his  am- 
bition; but  France  did  not  care  about  seeing  Prussia  at 
Dusseldorf;  Holland  dreaded  still  more  this  neighbor, 
so  powerfully  armed ;  neither  did  the  King  of  England, 
Elector  of  Hanover,  one  who  laid  claim  to  grand  roles  in 
Germany,  wish  the  growth  of  the  power  of  Prussia. 
The  Emperor  had  been  watching  for  a  long  time,  with 
uneasiness,  the  progress  of  the  Hohenzollern,  and  he  had 


92  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

personal  motives  for  not  displeasing  the  competitors  of 
the  king  to  the  succession  to  the  duchies.  Frederick 
William  had  then  to  do  with  a  very  strong  opposing 
party.  When  he  thought  of  the  dangers  he  might  have 
to  encounter,  he  was  as  if  taken  with  vertigo.  Prussia 
was  not  yet  solid ;  he  knew  it  well.  He  felt  that  she 
lived  and  moved  in  him;  he  nourished  her;  he  fortified 
and  animated  her  with  his  mind ;  his  prodigious  activ- 
ity started  the  inertia  of  his  incongruous  subjects;  his 
bureaux  and  his  army  organized  a  State  and  made  a 
country,  but  the  work  was  not  yet  finished.  This  Fred- 
erick William  was  the  first  true  Prussian  of  Prussia, 
there  are  millions,  to-day,  of  these  Prussians:  but  he 
was  the  only  one  of  his  time,  and  if,  a  century  after  his 
epoch,  it  appeared  possible,  as  Heinrich  Heine  said, 
"  that  Napoleon  could  whistle  and  Prussia  would  exist 
no  longer,"  it  would  have  been  sufficient  for  Frederick 
William  to  take  a  false  step,  and  Prussia  would  never 
have  been  born. 

Thus  he  did  not  dare  to  act  alone,  and,  at  the 
same  time,  he  had  too  much  pride  to  figure  as  a 
nonentity,  in  a  combination.  The  ways  of  the  great 
powers  irritated  him.  France,  England,  Austria,  Hol- 
land, held  a  high  head  with  him,  accustomed  as  they 
were  to  rule  the  world.  He  called  them  the  ''quad- 
rille dancers,"  and  yet  he  feared  them  while  he 
mocked  them.  If  he  entered  into  treaties  it  was  to 
be  as  equal  with  equal.  He  explained  himself  very 
frankly,  at  the  time  of  the  negotiations  of  the  Hano- 
verian League.  "I  will  not  enter  into  war,"  said  he, 
"for  the  benefit  of  the  Hollanders,   so  that  they   may 


THE    FATHER.  93 

be  able  to  sell  at  a  higher  price  tea,  coffee,  cheese 
and  china  !  I  wish  to  know  about  the  pot  aux  roses 
(the  secret).  ..."  This  pot  aux  roses  was  that 
they  were  going  to  make  war  on  the  Emperor,  and 
take  some  provinces  away  from  him;  "but  to  whom 
will  fall,  in  the  division,  the  provinces  taken  from 
the  Emperor?  ...  If  I  make  conquests  will  I 
retain  them  or  will  it  be  necessary  to  give  them  all 
up  ?  And  if  I  give  them  up  who  will  pay  my  war 
expenses  ?  I  mean  to  know  all  the  secrets,  as  well  as 
the  Very  Christian  King  and  the  King  of  Great  Brit- 
ain, and  to  regulate  with  all  of  them  whatever  comes 
up,  as  an  equal  party,  not  as  a  subaltern  and  an  in- 
ferior. ...  If  I  am  going  to  accede  to  this 
Hanover  alliance,  I  will  not  enter  into  it  as  an  errand- 
boy."60  He  had  very  explicit  reasons  for  speaking  in 
this  way ;  he  remembered  the  affronts  received  by  his 
grandfather,  the  Great  Elector,  and  his  father,  Fred- 
erick I.;  the  conquests  that  they  had  to  surrender, 
treaties  signed,  after  they  fought  in  the  wars,  with- 
out even  allowing  them  to  consult  their  own  in- 
terests. 

He  did  not  wish  to  act  alone,  and  yet  was  discon- 
tented with  all  other  company:  what  then  remained 
for  him  to  do  ?  First  to  storm  against  all  the  other 
powers ;  and  he  lent  himself  .  to  it  with  a  right  good 
will.  One  day,  during  a  dinner,  he  was  speaking,  in 
a  desultory  way,  of  the  affairs  of  the  continent,  "and 
ended  the  repast  by  making  everybody  drink  a  bum- 
per to  the  approaching  confusion  of  all  Europe."61 
This  confusion    he   expected,  hoped   and  prepared  for, 


94  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

in  husbanding  all  his  strength.  Already  he  was  "  re- 
spectable," and  saw  very  well  that  they  held  him  to 
be  of  some  account,  and  he  was  proud  of  it.  ''All  the 
most  imposing  powers  seek  me,  and  emulate  each 
other  in  fondling  me,  as  they  would  a  bride. 
They  will  always  be  obliged  to  seek  a  prince  who 
has  a  hundred  thousand  men  ready  for  action  and 
twenty -five  million  crowns  to  sustain  them."  He  had 
now  gained  that  point  where  he  had  no  need  of 
anyone.  Like  his  father  and  grandfather,  he  could 
have  found  subsidy  in  foreign  countries  if  he  had 
wished,  but  it  was  "a  thing  he  had  never  done  and 
would  never  do."  He  intended  to  remain  his  own 
master,  and  gloried  "in  following  his  own  impulse," 
that  is  to  say,  "his  momentary  caprice."  The  repre- 
sentatives of  the  older  powers  had  to  take  the  greatest 
precautions  with  him:  "I  would  rather  eat  bread  and 
cheese  all  my  life,"  said  he,  "than  to  suffer  them  to 
impose  upon  me  the  law  of  talking,  when  I  do  not 
wish  to  do  so."62 

From  time  to  time,  he  liked  to  make  himself 
believe  that  he  would  act  some  day.  He  spoke  of 
possible  "revolutions"  at  the  death  of  the  Czarina, 
or  of  the  King  and  Queen  of  Sweden,  the  King  of 
Poland  or  of  the  Emperor:  "All  these  successions 
are  disputed,"  said  he,  "and  even  if  the  King  of 
England  should  be  missing,  the  Pretender  would  find 
followers  enough  to  support  him,  to  give  perhaps 
occasion  for  some  trouble."  He  survived  the  most  of 
these  events,  which  did  not  turn  out  as  he  expected, 
or   he    did    not   know    how   to    profit  by  them ;  he  re- 


THE    FATHER.  95 

served  himself  perhaps  for  the  "trouble"  that  would 
follow  the  death  of  the  Emperor.  He  preferred 
however  to  leave  to  his  son,  with  an  account  of  the 
wrongs  done  him,  the  care  of  action  and  revenge. 
He  pronounced  more  than  one  prophetic  word,  among 
others  this  one,  as  he  pointed  to  the  Crown  Prince: 
"Here  is  one  who  will  avenge  me  some  day — Da 
steht  einer  der  mich  rachen  wird."  It  seems  that  he 
accepted  philosophically  the  role  that  would  be  assigned 
to  him  in  Prussian  history. 

He  wrote  as  early  as  1722,  in  an  Instruction  for 
his  successor,  these  remarkable  words:  "The  Elector 
Frederick  William  has  given  to  our  House  develop- 
ment and  prosperity ;  my  father  has  acquired  royal 
dignity ;  I  have  made  a  State  of  the  army  and  coun- 
try. Upon  you,  my  dear  successor,  is  devolved  the 
maintenance  of  what  there  is  and  the  gaining  of 
those  countries  which  belong  to  us  through  God  and 
our  right." 

THE    INDIVIDUALITY    OF    FREDERICK   WILLIAM. 

Frederick  William  was  constantly  occupied  with  his 
affairs.  As  they  were  never  completed,  and  never 
went  together,  his  mind  knew  no  repose.  He  was 
born  restless  and  turbulent,  predisposed  to  misuse  life 
and  the  practicality  of  life,  forcing  and  aggravating 
it  out  of  the  natural,  making  of  himself  one  of  the 
most  tortured  beings  ever  known  to  history. 

He  suffered  in  body  as  well  as  mind.  His  frame 
showed  strength  during  the  first  years  of  his  reign. 
His  limbs  were  strong  and   well   proportioned.     From 


96  .    FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

out  his  serious,  cold,  oval  face  with  its  high  fore- 
head, sparkled  a  mobile  eye  that  saw  everything.  It 
could  become,  at  will,  intensely  set  on  an  object  that 
it  wished  to  scrutinize  or  on  a  soul  that  it  wished  to 
read.  The  lips  seemed  always  ready  to  speak,  not  to 
say  amiable  things,  but  to  interrogate,  with  an  ex- 
pression of  disdain,  as  if  they  were  sure  that  the 
speaker  was  a  liar  or  a  knave.  Frederick  William 63 
was  a  blonde  in  spite  of  himself :  as  a  child,  he  ex- 
posed himself  to  the  sun  so  as  to  brown  his  girl 
skin.  As  soon  as  he  commenced  to  wear  the  short 
perruque  a  queue,  he  chose  a  brown  one.  He  feared 
no  fatigue,  and  exhausted  himself  and  those  around 
him.  The  horse,  the  carriage,  the  cart,  the  hunt,  the 
table,  the  wine,  the  tobacco,  were  all  too  strong  for 
him.  Early  in  life,  he  was  seized  with  the  gout, 
then  shaken  by  apoplexy,  and  swollen  by  dropsy. 
He  grew  so  large  that  his  waist  measured  four  ells. 
The  attacks  of  these  maladies  became  more  and  more 
frequent;  he  became  deaf  from  the  effects  "of  an  in- 
flammation of  the  ears ; "  he  would  suddenly  become 
drowsy,  or  again,  he  would  swoon  away ;  and  his  face 
would  be  streaked  blue  and  red.  It  is  said  that,  at 
times,  the  skin  under  his  thighs  would  become  de- 
tached and  look  like  a  bladder  of  fresh  pork. 64  We 
have  the  detail  of  one  of  his  maladies:  the  sufferings  he 
endured  were  horrible.  He  said  that  a  king  should 
know  how  to  suffer  better  than  any  other  mortal,  but 
his  stoicism  was  interrupted  by  fits  of  anger,  and  his 
natural  endurance  gave  way  to  fury.  It  must  never  be 
forgotten,  in  judging  Frederick  William,  that  he  lived 
in  constant  torture. 


THE    FATHER.  97 

It  is  not  true  that  he  was  naturally  wicked,  and  that 
he  did  not  love  even  his  own  family.  He  assuredly 
loved  his  wife.  He  was  but  eighteen  years  old  when  he 
married,  and  had,  up  to  the  time  of  his  marriage,  so 
much  modesty  that  he  would  blush  when  a  lady  would 
kiss  his  hand  through  respect.  His  disposition  showed 
itself  in  his  conjugal  love.  At  twenty-five,  when 
he  became  king,  he  already  had  five  children;  the  queen 
bore  him  nine  more.  He  was  to  the  last  a  faithful  hus- 
band. He  came  forth  conqueror  from  the  strong  tempta- 
tions put  upon  his  virtue,  while  on  a  trip  to  the  Court  of 
Dresden.  He  wrote  :  "  I  have  returned,  after  this  trial, 
as  I  departed,"  One  day,  while  traveling,  he  took 
pleasure  in  talking  to  a  pretty  woman ;  General 
Grumbkow  offered  himself  as  negotiator;  the  king  re- 
pulsed him  sharply.  He  did  not  intend  to  be  untrue  to 
his  Fiekchen,  or  Fiji,  as  he  called  Sophia  Dorothea.  An- 
other time,  he  met  one  of  the  Queen's  ladies-in-waiting, 
on  a  stairway,  caught  her  by  the  waist  and  began  cajol- 
ing her.  He  received  a  slap.  "Oh!  the  wicked  little 
devil!"  he  cried.     This  was  all  his  complaint. 

These  two  anecdotes,  which  are  perhaps  not  authen- 
tic, compose  his  history  as  a  gallant,  and  in  what  a 
century! 

He  esteemed  his  wife,  and  gave  her  a  proof  of  it  when 
he  set  out  on  his  campaign  for  Pomerania.  "If  anything 
of  importance  happens,"  writes  he  to  his  secret  counsel, 
"tell  my  wife  and  take  her  advice,  Soil  an  meine  Fran 
gesagt  werden  .  .  ."  Frederick  William  was,  per- 
haps, the  only  Hohenzollern  that  ever  gave  an  order  of 
this  kind,  for  the  principal  function  of  queens  in  Prus- 


98  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

sia  is  maternity.  He  asked  nothing  more  than  to  love 
his  children.  His  first  Instruction  for  the  education  of 
the  Crown  Prince  was  of  a  father  who  wished  to  be  cher- 
ished by  his  son.  It  would  seem  that  he  had  the  qualities 
of  a  good  husband  and  father.  But  he  meant  to 
rule  in  household  as  well  as  in  state,  without  ar- 
guments, and  he  intended  that  his  wife  and  chil- 
dren should  have  no  other  tastes  than  his,  that  they 
should  bear  with  his  ill-humor,  even  when  it  was  exe- 
crable, and  whenever  it  pleased  him  to  bring  it  down 
upon  those  around  him.  The  slightest  resistance,  the 
least  hesitation  irritated  him.  It  was  not  necessary  for 
the  queen  to  oppose  him  long,  before  he  would  hurl  at 
her  words  like  these:  "The  loss  of  a  woman  is  not 
more  than  the  loss  of  a  hollow  tooth,  which  pains  one 
while  it  is  being  pulled,  but  which  one  is  delighted  to 
be  rid  of  the  moment  after."65  If  the  opposition  became 
worse,  if  it  took  the  character  of  a  rebellion,  the  good 
husband,  the  good  father,  gave  himself  up  to  extreme 
anger.  Then,  too,  he  lived  very  little  with  his  family; 
the  drill  at  Potsdam,  the  hunt,  the  trips  of  inspection,  his 
solitary  rides,  separated  him  from  them.  He  saw  them 
around  him  at  table,  in  the  general  confusion  of  a  large 
company,  and  in  the  perpetual  tumult  of  his  thoughts. 

To  live  a  sedative  life,  and,  above  all,  to  hold  a  court 
he  had  neither  the  taste  nor  the  time.  He  passed  four 
or  five  hours  each  day66  in  his  cabinet,  listening  to  re- 
ports, having  the  ministers'  questions  read,  writing  his 
answers,  or  designing  them,  for  he  responded  as  well  by 
a  rebus,  and  often  in  a  very  clear  way;  all  comprehended 
what  was  meant  by  a  gibbet  on  the  margin  of  a  question. 


THE    FATHER.  99 

He  passed,  on  an  average,  two  hours  at  his  principal  re- 
ports and  all  evening  in  drinking  and  smoking.  Be- 
fore dinner,  he  would  go  to  the  parade;  afterward  take 
a  walk,  or  ride  in  a  carriage  or  on  horseback;  but  upon 
the  road  or  in  the  street,  he  worked.  He  talked  of  his 
affairs  with  those  who  accompanied  him.  He  had  oftener 
some  object  in  these  promenades;  to  surprise  a  sentinel, 
to  watch  over  the  work  of  the  peasants  and  workmen, 
the  buildings  particularly,  for  he  had  the  ambition  to 
enlarge  and  embellish  Berlin.  It  was  one  of  his  great 
pleasures  to  watch  a  house  going  up,  and  to  enter  into  a 
conversation  with  the  architects  and  builders.  On  his 
way  he  would  stop  to  receive  petitions,  to  ask  people 
their  names,  or  question  the  couriers  as  to  where  they 
were  going ;  he  would  give  information  to  those  seeking 
a  street  or  a  house.  Once  he  entered  a  lodging  where  he 
heard  a  great  uproar,  and  forced  a  couple  who  were 
quarreling  to  embrace.  He  was  the  terror  of  loungers, 
and  dispersed  with  blows  of  his  cane  tfiose  that  lingered 
to  play  at  bowls.  His  subjects  dreaded  to  meet  him, 
and  evaded  the  meeting  at  need  by  flight.  It  is  said 
that  one  day  he  carried  on  the  following  dialogue  with 
one  of  these  runaways:  "Why  are  you  running?" 
"Because  I  am  afraid."  "You  must  not  be  afraid,  you 
must  love  me."  And,  to  make  the  poor  devil  more 
sensible  of  his  duty  of  loving,  he  gave  him  a  good 
flogging. 

Very  laborious  were  his  inspections  in  the  provinces. 
For  these  journeys  no  gilded  carriages,  nor  outriders, 
nor  lackeys,  as  in  the  time  of  his  father,  who  seemed  to 
be    always    posing    before    some    Van  der  Meulen ;    no 


100  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

ladies,  whose  gowns  feared  the  dust,  who  retarded  the 
departure  in  the  morning,  and  had  to  be  entertained  all 
along  the  route  with  frivolities.  Not  even  an  escort, 
except  along  the  frontier  of  the  "anarchy"  of  Poland. 
Four  or  five  post  carriages,  well  equipped,  the  relay 
awaiting  them  at  the  hour  appointed,  were  sufficient  to 
transport  the  king,  generals  and  counselors  that  had  to 
travel  with  him.  They  worked  while  on  the  journey. 
It  took  two  weeks  for  Frederick  I.  to  go  from  Berlin  to 
Konigsburg ;  four  days  was  enough  for  his  son  ;  in  three 
days  Frederick  William  went  from  Berlin  to  Cleves. 
His  visit  was  not  expected  :  everywhere  he  desired  to 
surprise  the  colonels,  the  Chambers  of  Administra- 
tion, the  farmers,  judges,  foresters.  All  appearance 
of  a  reception  was  forbidden ;  the  king  dined  at  an 
inn,  as  well  at  one  as  at  another,  and  contented  him* 
self  with  a  chicken  and  soup,  cabbage  with  salt 
meat,  a  roast  of  veal  with  butter,  and  cheese  for  a  finish. 
He  had  not  a  minute  to  lose;  he  examined  the  regiments, 
the  funds,  the  accounts,  he  counted  the  vacant  places  in 
the  fields  and  in  the  cities.  Between  times  he  exercised 
his  justice.  He  discovered  the  proof  of  malpractice  in 
the  accounts  of  the  Domain  of  Lithuania,  and  ordered 
an  inquest:  the  Counselor  of  the  Domains,  Von  Schla- 
buth,  found  guilty  of  embezzlement  of  a  sum  destined 
for  the  establishment  of  colonies,  was  condemned  to  sev- 
eral years'  imprisonment.  The  king  did  not  confirm  the 
judgment.  He  reserved  his  supreme  decision  for  his 
next  journey  through  Prussia.  On  arriving  at  Konigs- 
burg he  summoned  Schlabuth,  reproached  him  for  his 
crime,  and  declared  he  deserved  to  be  hung.      Schlabuth 


THE    FATHER.  101 

exclaimed:  "It  is  not  customary  to  hang  noblemen;" 
furthermore,  he  had  returned  the  embezzled  funds.  "I 
do  not  want  your  dirty  money,"  cried  the  king,  who  gave 
the  order  to  take  him  away.  He  had  a  gallows  erected 
in  the  night,  under  the  windows  of  the  Chamber  of 
Administration.  There  was  great  excitement  in  the 
city.  An  unprecedented  action  this,  a  condemnation, 
without  trial,  contrary  to  a  judgment !  The  family  did 
everything  to  save  the  unfortunate  man.  The  next  day 
being  Sunday,  they  had  twenty-four  hours  to  attempt  to 
bend  the  judge.  At  divine  service  the  preacher  took 
for  the  text  of  his  sermon  the  words:  "Blessed  are  the 
merciful,  for  they  shall  obtain  mercy."  The  king  wept, 
but  the  day  following  he  convoked  a  meeting  of  the 
Chamber  of  Administration,  and,  under  the  eyes  of  the 
counselors,  had  their  colleague  hung. 

THE    PLEASURES    OF    FREDERICK    WILLIAM. 

Frederick  William  had  also  his  hours  of  relaxation 
and  pleasure,  and  some  enjoyment  of  life.  It  was  not 
at  the  door  of  philosophy  he  knocked,  nor  of  science. 
He  had  a  horror  of  all  speculation  that  did  not  produce 
immediate  practical  application.  When  a  child  he  had 
too  often  heard,  at  the  court  of  his  mother,  who  was 
the  great  friend  of  Leibnitz,  about  monads,  infinitely 
great  and  infinitely  small,  and  pre-established  harmony. 
He  understood  nothing  of  these  profound  doctrines, 
and  called  bluntly  all  philosophy  a  Windmacherei, 
wind-making.  As  the  wind  did  not  pay  the  excises,  the 
king  was  ready  to  prohibit  the  manufacture  of  it  as  use- 
less.     He    readily   believed    the    counselors  who    repre- 


l6&  FRftJD>ftRiCK    THE    GREAT. 

sented  it  to  be  dangerous.  One  day  he  committed  a 
barbarous  act  against  the  most  celebrated  philosopher 
of  his  day.  Wolf,  a  disciple  of  Leibnitz,  taught  the 
doctrines  of  his  master  at  Halle.  His  rivals  of  the 
University  and  his  adversaries,  the  bigots,  organized  a 
cabal  against  him.  It  is  said  they  represented  to  the 
king  that,  according  to  the  theories  of  Wolf,  a  Potsdam 
Grenadier  could  desert  unscrupulously,  alleging  that 
he  was,  from  creation,  predisposed  to  the  desertion  in 
virtue  of  pre-established  harmony.  The  king  considering 
"that  the  letters  and  lessons  of  Professor  Wolf  were 
contrary  to  the  religion  revealed  by  the  word  of  God," 
ordered  the  said  professor  to  leave  the  city  and  king- 
dom in  forty-eight  hours,  "under  penalty  of  strangu- 
lation." Four  years  after,  he  interdicted  the  reading 
of  Wolf's  writings,  filled  with  "atheistical  principles," 
under  penalty  of  hard  labor  for  life.  It  is  true  that 
toward  the  latter  part  of  his  reign  he  saw  his  error.  To 
make  reparation,  he  did  all  that  could  be  expected  of 
him ;  he  wrote  to  Wolf,  offered  his  excuses,  made  brill- 
iant overtures  to  him,  and,  in  the  most  persuasive  way,67 
urged  him  to  return,  but  Wolf  was  not  to  be  won  ;  he 
put  off  his  entrance  into  Prussia  until  the  accession  of 
Frederick  II.,  the  King-Philosopher. 

Through  the  advice  of  Leibnitz,  Frederick  I.  had 
founded  a  "society  of  scientists."  He  had  given  them 
a  magnificent  role:  to  glorify  German  Science,  to  purify 
the  German  Language,  to  study  the  History  of  Germany 
and  the  Church,  Physics,  Mathematics,  Astronomy,  Me- 
chanics, ways  of  propagating  the  faith  and  preserving 
the   Kingdom   of    Prussia    from    inundations    and    fire. 


THE    FATHER.  103 

From  this  repertory  several  articles  must  have  pleased 
Frederick  William,  notably  the  last.  He  did  not  with- 
draw the  royal  donation  from  the  society.  He  even 
showed  them  marks  of  favor  when  they  asked  permis- 
sion to  open  an  anatomical  lecture  hall,  but,  as  they 
were  thanking  him,  he  said:  "Work  with  more  zeal 
than  you  have  done  heretofore.  .  .  Your  society 
must  apply  itself  to  inventions  capable  of  advancing  arts 
and  sciences,  but  in  a  way  that  they  may  be  generally 
useful;  no  wind-manufacturing;  none  of  those  lying 
dreams  in  which  so  many  worthy  men  lose  them- 
selves." 

He  expressed  his  contempt  for  science  in  a  most  pecul- 
iar manner.  He  had  in  his  own  service  a  man  by  the 
name  of  Gundling,  a  great  savant,  a  polygraph,  whose 
very  extended  knowledge  he  used  in  matters  of  law  and 
politics.  He  made  him  his  commensal  and  the  indis- 
pensable habitue  of  his  "tabagie."  Among  other  favors 
he  gave  him  the  entire  use  of  his  wine-cellar,  knowing 
well  that  the  doctor  would  abuse  this  privilege.  He 
made  him  drunk  every  day;  he  enjoyed  it,  and  desired 
others  to  be  amused  at  the  poor  man's  expense,  by  dirty, 
dishonoring  jokes.  He  called  him  the  "Court  Jester," 
so  as  to  heap  upon  him  all  the  dignities  he  could  think  of 
that  were  ridiculous.  He  made  him  Grand  Master  of 
Ceremonies,  Grand  Chamberlain,  a  baron  with  grotesque 
armorial  bearings,  and  President  of  the  Society  of 
Sciences,  President — after  Leibnitz  !  In  the  same  man- 
ner he  treated  Dr.  Fassmann  and  Dr.  Bartholdi,  Pro- 
fessor of  Law  in  the  University  of  Frankf ort-on-the-Oder, 
whom  he    called   "Mr.  Pandects,"  and  the  astronomer 


104  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

Graben  zum  Stein,  whom  he  surnamed  "  Mr.  Astralicus." 
Graben  was  also  nominated  President  of  the  Academy 
of  Sciences.  The  king  took  the  trouble  to  reject  the 
nomination. 

He  boasted  of  Graben's  knowledge  of  antiquities,  new 
and  old  coins,  physics,  mechanics,  botany,  hydraulics, 
pneumatics,  statics,  and  cabal,  of  his  art  of  knowing 
how  to  examine  evil  spirits,  with  the  use  and  abuse 
that  could  be  made  of  it,  of  the  wonderful  preadamite 
doctrine,  history,  physics,  logic,  the  combinatory  art  of 
algebra,  etc.,  etc.  Graben  had,  among  other  duties,  the 
arrangement  of  the  calendar.  He  had  to  be  circumspect 
in  his  predictions,  to  announce  the  fewest  possible  bad 
days,  and  the  greatest  number  of  good  days.  He  had 
the  charge  of  watching  over  spirits.  The  incredulity  of 
men  had,  of  course,  passed  the  bounds  of  hobgoblins, 
ghosts,  etc.,  but  there  were  still  dwarfs,  wehr-wolves; 
they  could  be  found  in  the  lakes,  marshes,  caverns,  and 
hollows  of  old  trees:  Graben  had  to  work  out  their 
destruction.  For  each  one  of  these  wicked  spirits  that 
he  captured,  dead  or  alive,  he  was  to  receive  a  prize  of 
six  thalers.  And,  lastly,  according  to  an  ancient  tradi- 
tion, the  soil  of  Brandenburg,  principally  around  the  old 
monasteries,  was  sown  with  treasures.  Every  ten  years, 
to  assure  herself  that  these  treasures  were  undisturbed, 
Rome  sent  Jesuits  and  other  vermin  there.  Graben 
must  try  to  catch  these  rascals,  but  the  most  important 
of  all  was  to  find  the  treasures,  by  the  means  that  were 
used  then  ;  the  king  put  at  his  disposition  the  books  on 
magic  that  he  found  in  the  archives,  with  the  speculum 
Salomonis.    .     .      "In  witness  of  which  we  have  signed 


THE    FATHER.  105 

this  ordinance  with  our  own  hand,  and  appended  thereto 
our  royal  seal.     .     ."68 

Frederick  William  was  not  insensible  to  the  charm  of 
the  arts.  He  was  a  natural  musician,  and  loved  music. 
From  the  "Chapelle"  of  his  father  he  had  kept  an 
artist  whom  he  had  made  Master  of  the  "Chapelle  des 
Haut-bois  "  of  his  Grenadier  Guard.  From  time  to  time, 
in  the  evening,  he  had  them  play  the  choruses  and  airs 
of  two  of  Handel's  operas  that  were  his  favorites. 
Sometimes  he  would  drop  off  to  sleep,  or  seem  to  do  so, 
and  the  leader  would  skip  a  few  measures.  The  king 
would  always  notice  it:  "  You  have  not  played  such  an 
air,"  he  would  say,  and  then  sing  the  first  notes;  they 
had  to  recommence.  He  thus  heard,  hundreds  and  hun- 
dreds of  times,  the  same  arias.  He  did  not  wish  to  be 
disturbed  by  an  audience  :  in  the  long  hall  where  the 
musicians  were  stationed  at  one  end  with  their  music- 
stands  and  candles,  he  would  place  himself  at  the  other, 
all  alone,  in  the  dark.  It  was  evident,  then,  that  he 
had  a  taste  for  this  fine  heroic  music,  but,  as  he  could 
not  keep  from  mixing  irony  with  the  serious  things  of 
life,  and  turning  everything  to  coarse  comicality,  he 
.was  delighted  the  day  that  the  Master  surprised  him 
with  a  pig  sextet  that  he  had  composed  from  a  story 
told  in  the  smoking-room.  The  king  had  him  repeat  the 
piece  twenty  times,  while  he  held  his  sides  and  laughed 
until  the  tears  streamed  down  his  face. 

He  was  a  painter,  as  well  as  a  musician,  during  his 
leisure  moments.  When  the  bad  weather  or  gout  con- 
fined him  to  his  apartments,  as  he  could  not  "  remain 
doing    nothing,"    he    painted.     Pictures  by  him,   exe- 


106  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

cuted  during  these  fits  of  the  gout,  bore  the  signature: 
In  tormentis  pinxit.  F.  W.  He  preferred  caricature 
sketching.  He  liked  droll  beasts,  bears  and  monkeys. 
It  is  told  that  at  the  principal  post  of  Potsdam  was  an 
old  bear  who  understood  the  military  commands.  At 
the  cry:  Heraus!  he  would  go  out,  raise  himself  up  on 
his  hind  legs,  and  fall  in  line  with  the  company;  he 
recognized,  it  appears,  the  voice  of  the  king,  who  was 
very  proud  of  it.  The  king  had  at  the  palace,  among 
other  animals,  cubs  and  monkeys,  that  he  used  for  low 
farces  at  the  "  Tobacco  Club."  These  animals  were  the 
principal  inspirers  of  his  pencil.  He  would  dress  them 
up  as  men,  and  make  them  play  the  human  comedy, 
like  the  artists  and  writers  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

Through  conscientious  scruples  he  mistrusted  come- 
dies; so  he  did  not  have,  like  his  father,  a  French  Com- 
edy, nor  an  Italian  Opera;  but,  one  day  at  Charlotten- 
burg,  he  admired  extravagantly  a  certain  Eckenberg, 
who  held  on  his  extended  arm  a  drummer  seated  on  a 
cannon.  He  immediately  accorded  him  a  privilege. 
"Whereas,  Mr.  Eckenberg,  celebrated  for  his  extraor- 
dinary strength,  has  given  at  the  Palace  of  Charlotten- 
burg  many  remarkable  proofs  of  the  power  with  which 
God  has  endowed  him,  in  presence  of  and  for  the  great 
pleasure  of  His  Majesty;  seeing  that  the  said  party  has 
requested  His  Majesty,  in  all  humility,  not  only  to  give 
him  a  letter  of  recommendation,  but  also  permission  to 
visit  his  kingdom,  provinces  and  countries,  and  give  an 
exhibition  of  this  said  strength  in  all  the  cities  and 
towns  that  he  pleased,"  order  was  given  to  the  civil  and 
military  authorities   to   take  care  of  and  give  him  aid. 


THE    FATHER.  107 

Eckenberg,  that  they  commonly  called  the  "  Strong 
Man,"  was  promoted  to  the  dignity  of  "  Master  of  the 
Pleasures  of  the  King,"  and  "  Royal  Prussian  Court 
Comedian."  The  privilege  was  conferred  to  give,  "be- 
sides these  exhibitions  of  strength  and  rope-dancing, 
theatrical  representations  with  the  assistance  of  his 
troop,  for  the  recreation  of  those  who  did  not  have  too 
much  to  do.  .  .  ,  under  the  condition  that  he  would 
represent  and  play  things  that  were  not  impious,  sinful, 
scandalous,  dishonest  or  injurious  to  Christianity,  but, 
on  the  contrary,  innocent  things  which  would  procure 
people  honest  amusement, —  honestes  Amusement.  .  ." 
Major-General  Count  Alexander  Yon  DOnhoff  was 
given  the  charge  of  these  comedians,  and  we  have  from 
this  celebrated  military  man  such  report,  where  he  lays 
before  His  Majesty:  1st,  That,  conformably  to  the  gra- 
cious decision  of  His  Majesty,  stating  that  the  deserter, 
John  Baptist  Mumieux,  must  be  hung,  he  has  "notified 
him  of  the  death-sentence;"  2d,  that  the  "Strong  Man," 
Eckenberg,  dismissed  Harlequin  and  the  Dentist,  but 
that,  after  the  affair  had  been  explained  to  him, —  this 
sending  off  of  two  of  his  best  actors,  without  the  permis- 
sion of  His  Majesty, — he  had  taken  them  back  again,  and 
had  counted  out  to  them  their  weekly  wages.  Another 
day  the  king  learned  that  the  "Strong  Man"  and  his 
wife,  while  they  were  both  drunk,  threw  themselves  upon 
the  comedian  Walldorf,  and  without  cause,  heaped  him 
with  insults,  blows  and  kicks.  The  General  had  to 
tear  him  away  from  the  hands  of  Eckenberg,  or  he 
would  have  been  strangled  to  death.  But  the  two 
drunkards  ran  upon  the  stage,  insulting  and  maltreating 


108  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

the  actors.  The  play  had  been  interrupted  ;  the  people 
fled.  The  General  had  to  conduct  the  "  Strong  Man" 
and  his  wife  to  the  post-house,  while  "they  honored 
him  with  curses." 

Thus  the  Court  Theater  was  not  particularly  condu- 
cive to  the  improvement  of  morals.69  Their  favorite 
plays  were  Italian  farces,  '  <  full  of  agreeable  intrigues, 
and  highly  burlesque,"  as  the  playbills  stated.  They 
employed  both  men  and  dummies;  the  king  preferred 
the  dummies;  in  reality,  he  liked  only  the  marionettes; 
sometimes  he  would  distrust  them.  Once  he  was  pres- 
ent at  a  play,  and  noticed  some  shocking  words  that 
were  uttered  by  one  of  these  puppets.  He  gave  an  or- 
der to  Roloff,  Counselor  of  the  Consistory,  to  go  to  the 
theater  and  tell  them  what  he  thought  of  this  play. 
The  minister  of  the  gospel  recoiled  from  this  office,  in- 
voking to  his  aid  the  duties  and  dignity  of  his  calling. 
The  king  admitted  these  reasons,  but  he  related  his  em- 
barrassment to  one  of  his  confidential  men,  Eversmann, 
Chamberlain-janitor  of  the  palace,  and  he  was  acquainted 
with  a  deacon  who  would  undertake  the  function  of 
censor.  The  deacon  received  orders  to  go  to  the  play 
that  evening,  and  place  himself  in  view  of  the  king. 
He  was  to  listen  attentively,  and  as  soon  as  a  passage 
offended  him  he  was  to  draw  out  his  tablet  and  make  a 
note  of  it.  The  king,  who  was  looking  at  him,  noticed 
the  impropriety  of  the  speech,  arose  abruptly,  and  left 
the  playhouse.  That  very  evening  he  ordered  the  come- 
dians to  leave  the  city  in  twenty-four  hours,  forbidding 
them  to  ever  return. 

So  it  was,  even  the  marionettes  had  their  faults,  and 


THE    FATHER.  109 

the  pleasures  of  the  theater  their  disappointments.  They 
tried  to  make  the  king  believe  that  the  hunt  itself  was  not 
innocent,  and  that  the  soul  of  a  Christian  was  in  peril 
there;  but  here  their  trouble  was  lost;  he  always  con- 
tinued to  be  a  passionate  hunter.  In  Prussia,  he  made 
raids  on  the  bear  and  wild  ox.  In  Brandenburg  and 
Pomerania,  he  hunted  the  deer,  wild  boar,  pheasant, 
heron,  hare  and  quail.  He  threw  into  this  diversion 
wild  enthusiasm;  firing  in  one  day  six  hundred  shots  to 
bring  down  a  hundred  quail.  The  wild-boar  chase  was 
a  great  massacre.  But  his  real  pleasure  was  to  force 
the  deer.  Parks  of  several  thousand  square  miles 
were  kept  for  this  "hunt  at  force."  The  king  would 
follow  at  a  trot  or  gallop,  for  four,  five  or  six  hours,  the 
dogs  that  tormented  these  animals.  In  the  chase  alone, 
he  loved  luxury.  The  keeping  up  of  these  parks  cost 
him  a  considerable  sum.  His  pack  was  chosen  with 
great  care,  and  better  lodged  than  many  of  his  subjects. 
The  huntsmen  had  a  well-fed  look  in  their  livery.  He 
despised  court  ceremony,  but  it  was  strictly  observed  in 
the  forest.  When  the  deer  was  brought  to  cover,  the 
Grand  Master  "gave  him  the  death  blow,"  detached  the 
antlers  and  presented  them  to  the  king  on  a  silver  plat- 
ter. The  view-halloo  was  sounded.  As  a  sign  of  victory, 
the  king  and  all  his  suite  put  a  twig  in  their  hats.  Upon 
a  car  covered  with  branches  the  animal  was  taken  in 
procession  to  the  castle.  According  to  the  ancient  cus- 
toms, the  dogs  then  received  their  booty,  "their right  of 
the  hunt,"  that  is  to  say,  the  quarry. 

Things  did  not  pass  more   solemnly  before   the   Em- 
peror, when  he  deigned   to  come  in  at  the  death,  but  I 


110  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

think  that  his  Imperial  Majesty  did  not  give  himself 
so  much  trouble  for  the  hunt,  nor  did  he  so  sharply 
taste  of  its  pleasures.  On  winter  days  Frederick  William 
rose  at  five  o'clock,  rode  two  or  three  leagues  in  an 
open  carriage,  and  commenced  the  hunt  at  break  of  day. 
In  the  most  disagreeable  weather  he  would  take  a  cold 
breakfast  in  the  open  air.  His  companions  thought  to 
warm  themselves  by  drink.  The  king,  rough  and  crusty 
as  he  was,  enjoyed  this  play  of  primitive  life. 

He  was  a  great  hunter  and  a  great  gourmand.  Fred- 
erick William  ate  enormously.  At  table,  as  everywhere 
else,  he  wished  the  substantial  and  the  solid.  No 
puffed-up  things  where  there  was  "wind."  Even  in  the 
soup  he  must  have  a  good  piece  of  veal,  or  a  chicken, 
or  a  fish,  to  sharpen  the  appetite.  As  a  good  German, 
he  was  fond  of  liver  and  pork  in  all  its  forms.  He 
often  went  to  the  kitchen  to  watch  the  head  cook  and 
teach  him  economy,  to  beat  him  if  he  wasted  the  but- 
ter, or  if  he  stole  in  his  accounts,  but  also  to  give  him 
a  few  instructions.  He  put  the  finishing  touches  to  his 
education  when  he  dined  out,  or  rather,  at  an  inn, 
"  The  King  of  Portugal."  One  day,  when  he  had  eaten 
some  good  mutton  tripe  with  cabbage,  he  returned  with 
the  recipe.  He  had  a  grateful  stomach.  He  enjoyed 
a  good  soup  at  the  house  of  Ilgen,  one  of  his  minis- 
ters: he  wrote  a  note  of  thanks,  and  sent  one  of  his 
cooks  to  learn  from  one  of  Ilgen's  how  to  make  a  good 
bouillon,  and  to  instruct  his  cook  in  return  how  to  pre- 
pare fish.  He  assured  this  minister  of  his  particular 
favor.  "  You  can,"  said  he,  "make  use  of  me  when- 
ever you    please."     As  just  at  that  time  there  was  a 


THE    FATHER.  Ill 

quarrel  in  the  royal  household,  and  Ilgen  was  on  the 
queen's  side,  this  dinner  had  the  effect  of  reconciling,  for 
awhile,  the  king  and  his  wife.  Again  Frederick  Will- 
iam was  very  kind  and  genial.  A  good  dinner  gave 
him  nearly  as  much  pleasure  as  a  grand  recruit.  The 
Foreign  Ministers  knew  this,  and  entertained  him  as 
well  as  they  possibly  could.  Among  other  arguments 
against  his  colleague  and  Austrian  rival,  La  Chetardie 
employed  truffles  with  oil ;  for  the  king  did  not  disdain, 
after  the  heavier  dishes,  to  indulge  in  certain  delicacies 
such  as  truffles  and  oysters,  provided  there  was  a  boun- 
tiful supply  of  them.  He  ate  his  hundred  oysters. 
Only  these  good  things  were  costly;  they  did  not  appear 
on  the  royal  table  except  on  grand  occasions.  The 
king,  to  reconcile  his  ideas  of  economy  with  his  petty 
weaknesses,  loved  to  make  a  good  meal  at  the  expense 
of  others.  He  drank  as  he  ate,  without  restraint,  and 
paid  even  more  attention  to  his  cellar  than  to  his  cuisine. 
He  did  not  like  champagne,  where  there  was  "wind" 
and  foam,  but  delighted  in  the  strong  wines  of  the 
Rhine  and  Hungary,  that  he  ordered  himself,  with  a 
thorough  knowledge  of  the  good  vineyards  and  their 
good  years.  The  dining  never  ended  without  some  of 
the  party  being  warmed  up  considerably.  The  king 
obliged  his  guests  to  drink  excessively;  it  was  one  of 
the  ways  of  making  love  to  him,  that  of  taking  a  little 
too  much  wine. 70 

At  nightfall  the  king  would  hold  one  of  his  "evening 
revels."  In  a  bare  hall,  around  a  long,  wooden  table, 
were  ranged  seats  of  wood.  He  took  his  place  at  the 
upper  end.     The  habitues  and  invited  guests  had  their 


112  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

places  marked  :  before  them  were  a  pitcher  of  beer,  a 
glass,  and  a  clay  pipe  in  a  wooden  case.  Upon  the  table 
were  baskets  filled  with  coarse  tobacco,  and  some  peat 
which  burned  in  glass  receptacles.  Everybody  had 
to  drink  and  smoke,  or  appear  to  do  so.  Those 
to  whom  the  tobacco  was  sickening  had  to  hold 
in  their  hand  an  empty  pipe,  and  puff  at  it  now 
and  then.  After  an  hour  or  two  they  placed  on 
the  table  bread,  butter  and  cheese;  upon  the  side-tables 
there  was  ham  and  cold  veal.  When  the  king  had  a 
distinguished  visitor  he  would  regale  the  company  with 
a  salad  and  fish;  he  would  serve  the  fish  and  make  the 
salad.  On  these  evenings  they  drank  Hungarian  wine, 
and  the  conversation  was  prolonged  far  into  the  night. 
The  king  smoked  incessantly.  During  one  sitting  of 
the  "  Tobacco  Club,"  when  the  king  was  entertaining 
His  Majesty,  King  Stanislas  Lecszinski,  the  two  royal 
majesties  smoked  more  than  thirty  pipes. 

At  table,  as  well  as  in  his  smoking  apartments,  the 
company  was  a  strange  one:  generals,  ministers,  officers, 
foreign  envoys,  found  themselves  with  buffoons  and 
court- jesters.  When  they  were  at  Wusterhausen,  the 
schoolmaster  would  often  come  and  smoke  his  pipe  there 
in  the  evening ;  the  king  held  him  in  great  esteem,  be- 
cause he  had  never  been  able  to  persuade  the  children  of 
the  village  to  cry  with  him:  "Our  master  is  an  ass!" 
The  conversation  would  overstep  all  bounds.  Even 
when  they  would  have  a  "discourse,"  or  a  report,  or 
perhaps  a  reading  from  the  journals,  the  king,  a  man 
who  made  constant  use  of  the  interrogation  point, 
would  interrupt  by  questions,  and  the  discussion  would 


THE    FATHER.  113 

begin.  In  the  autumn  of  1727  he  had  at  his  court  a 
young  Pietist  pastor  by  the  name  of  Francke.  While 
at  table,  the  points  at  issue  were  none  but  the  most  edi- 
fying,— salvation,  sin,  hell,  purgatory,  apparitions.  The 
minister  of  the  gospel  had  no  time  to  eat,  so  harassed 
was  he  by  the  king's  questions.  He  expressed  himself 
with  unction,  for  he  had  "  breathed  to  God"  a  prayer, 
begging  Him  to  guide  his  tongue;  but  Gundling  was 
among  the  guests,  and  he  arrived  drunk.  He  made 
"astonishing  gestures,  arose  from  table  and  went  fall- 
ing among  the  pages,  returned,  howled,  and  then  went 
off  again."  The  pastor  prayed  the  Lord  to  be  merciful, 
and  prevent  such  like  scandals  !71  However,  the  presence 
of  the  queen  and  princesses  imposed  a  certain  restric- 
tion. At  the  "  tabagie"  they  were  men  among  men. 
The  vulgar  farces  and  brutality  had  their  full  sway, 
with  a  mixture  of  scriptural  sayings  and  guardroom 
curses.  The  king  gave  free  scope  to  his  humor,  sus- 
taining his  rights  upon  the  duchies,  telling  of  his  mor- 
tifications and  his  hopes,  storming  against  the  "  qua- 
drille dancers,"  or  perhaps  talking  of  maneuvers  or  tac- 
tics, then  returning  to  stories  of  the  hunt  or  war,  recol- 
lections of  campaigns  in  the  Netherlands  and 
Pomerania.  These  subjects  came  up  again  and  again, 
for  Frederick  William  pertinaciously  repeated. 

ACTS    OF    VIOLENCE,   FOLLY    AND    DESPOTISM. 

At  the  hunt,  at  table,  in  his  smoking  apartments,  and 
with  the  queen  during  their  days  of  harmony  or  recon- 
ciliation, Frederick  William  passed  the  happiest  hours 
of    his   life.      These   hours    by  no  means   formed   the 


114  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

greater  part  of  his  passionate  existence.  The  violent 
rages  to  which  he  would  give  vent  showed  only  an 
abnormal  state  of  his  rude,  coarse  nature.  No  slave- 
trader,  I  imagine,  distributed  more  blows  with  the  stick 
than  did  this  king.  Not  to  mention  his  family  trage- 
dies, there  was  not  a  class  of  his  subjects,  the  officers 
,  excepted,  that  did  not  feel  the  touch  of  the  royal  cane. 
He  beat  his  domestics  right  and  left.  They  relate 
the  story  at  Berlin  "  that  he  had  cabinets  furnished  with 
large  sticks,  placed  at  certain  distances  one  from  the 
other,  to  be  more  convenient,  according  to  where  he 
happened  to  be,  so  as  to  apply  blows  to  those  who  ap- 
proached him  and  did  not  gratify  his  fancy."  He  gave 
a  blow  for  an  answer  that  did  n?ot  content  him,  whether 
it  was  really  bad,  or  so  good  that  he  could  not  reply  to 
it.  He  met  the  brewer  of  Potsdam  in  the  street:  "Why 
do  you  sell  your  beer  so  dear?"  said  the  king.  "Because 
I  am  governed  by  the  price  of  barley.  If  your  Majesty 
will  give  me  the  permission  to  procure  it  at  Stralsund, 
where  it  is  cheaper,  I  will  be  able  to  lower  my  prices." 
Nothing  more  just;  so  the  king,  after  having  come  to 
terms  with  the  "Swede"  brewer,  gave  him  twenty  blows 
with  his  cane.  He  struck  him,  by  way  of  justice,  to  ex- 
ecute the  sentence  that  he  had  pronounced  himself  in 
petto.  A  Jesuit,  saying  that  he  was  converted  to  Protest- 
antism, but  who  nevertheless  remained  a  Jesuit,  being 
suspected  of  political  intrigue,  was  arrested ;  his 
papers  were  burned,  however,  and  no  proof  could 
be  found  on  him :  the  king  had  an  interview  with 
this  man  in  the  wood,  "and  took  the  trouble  to  give 
him    a  volley  of    blows  with  his  stick."     One  day   a 


THE    FATHER.  115 

sentence  being  rendered  by  a  jury,  was  interrupted 
by  his  blows  given  on  the  shoulders  and  in  the 
faces  of  the  magistrates,  who  fled,  gnashing  their 
teeth,  and  he  followed  them  even  to  the  stairway.  It  is 
true,  he  did  not  beat  his  ministers,  but  many  a  time  he 
had  the  desire  to  do  it.  Once,  while  dining,  before 
twenty-five  guests,  among  whom  there  were  some  of  his 
ministers,  he  asked  the  Envoy  of  France:  "If  I  beat 
one  of  my  ministers  will  you  send  the  information  to 
France?"  "I  hope,"  answered  Rottenberg,  "that 
your  Majesty  will  not  put  my  discretion  to  such  a  test." 72 
All  the  foreign  residents,  Frederick  William's  own 
ministers  and  the  queen  attributed  these  proceedings  to 
a  mental  derangement,  and  expected  any  moment  "to 
see  the  poor  prince's  head  turned."  In  truth,  traces  of 
mania  were  not  lacking  in  the  series  of  anecdotes  of 
this  reign.  To  have  a  live  fish  scaled  and  oblige  his 
guests  to  eat  it  in  that  condition  ;  to  threaten  his  physi- 
cians "with  imprisonment  of  the  faculty"  if  they  did 
not  relieve  him  within  a  given  time  of  some  pimples 
on  his  tongue;  to  beat  a  doctor  because  he  did  not  cure 
one  of  his  little  girls  quick  enough  of  smallpox;  to 
take  a  walk  through  the  city  with  his  suite  at  ten 
o'clock  at  night,  by  the  light  of  torches,  crying  and 
making  them  cry  with  the  rest  of  the  canaille  so 
vociferously  that  Sauveterre,  "if  he  had  not  seen 
them  with  his  own  eyes,  would  have  thought  that 
they  were  animals  being  driven  to  market;"  to 
ride  out  alone  continually,  and  to  fire  at  a  miller  who 
passed  by  him,  these  are  truly  fits  of  mania.  The 
king,   too,    had  the^o.-fits  periodically.       "Spring   is  a 


116  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

bad  season  for  him,"  wrote  Rottenburg.  "  He  rides 
out  alone,  as  usual,  when  divine  inspiration  or  rest- 
lessness for  a  change  of  place  torments  him.  He  fell, 
Thile  going  at  a  gallop.  His  horse  gave  him  a  kick 
in  the  head.  He  was  saved  by  a  forester."  He  often 
had  moods  of  melancholy;  for  hours  he  would  remain 
mute,  "with  great  tears  falling  from  his  eyes."  He 
had  nocturnal  terrors,  and  would  leap  suddenly  from 
his  bed,  and  go  to  awaken  the  queen,  telling  her 
"that  he  had  thoughts  and  dreams  so  frightful 
that  he  could  not  sleep ;  that  he  did  not  know 
where  to  go;  that  it  seemed  that  they  followed  him 
everywhere,  and  that  they  would  kill  him,  accompany- 
ing these  words  with  gestures  and  cries  that  showed 
plainly  he  was  not  himself." 

His  spells  of  rage,  when  he  would  foam  at  the  mouth, 
ended  in  fits  of  stupidity.  He  heard  a  preacher, 
in  regard  to  a  fire  which  had  destroyed  a  portion  of 
Berlin,  hold  forth  upon  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem; 
he  asked  himself:  "Is  not  the  conflagration  that  has 
taken  place  in  my  capital  a  sign  of  the  destruction 
of  my  people."  Upon  leaving  church  he  fell  into  a 
revery,  then  came  the  "black  melancholy."  In  these 
moments  he  would  maltreat  pitilessly  those  who  ap- 
proached him.  After  this,  from  lassitude,  he  would 
fall  back  in  his  arm-chair,  where  he  remained  seated, 
with  his  elbows  on  the  table,  for  two  hours  at  a  time, 
his  eyes  set,  staring  at  each  one  who  entered  or  left 
the  room,  without  saying  a  word.  73 

For  his  wickedness  and  suffering  Frederick  William 
was,  in  part,  responsible.     He  w5^the  headsman  of  his 


THE    FATHER.  117 

body;  in  his  furious  spells  were  recognized  the  effects 
of  alcohol,  but,  as  I  have  said,  he  was  of  a  restless  na- 
ture. He  had  in  him,  at  birth,  the  disposition  to  tor- 
ment and  render  himself  unhappy.  The  care  of  his 
affairs,  the  passion  to  do  his  work  to  the  best  of  his 
ability,  the  sentiment  of  responsibilitv>toward  God  and 
"the  King  of  Prussia"  troubled  him,  and  partially  ex- 
plains his  excesses.  Everybody  noticed  that,  when 
affairs  of  state  were  going  along  smoothly,  the  king 
would  also  be  better,  and  his  temper  would  quiet  down. 
He  had  his  rages,  from  indigestion  caused  by  oysters 
and  cabbage.  He  had  them  on  account  of  a  certain 
regiment  badly  maneuvered,  or  because  such  a  receiver 
had  stolen,  or  that  the  "quadrille-dancers"  had  treated 
him  like  an  errand-boy. 

Such  a  man  could  not  be  loved.  The  only  sentiments 
that  he  inspired  were  dread  and  horror,  mixed  with 
some  pity.  The  days  that  his  subjects  lived,  in  his 
reign,  were  dark.  He  was,  in  the  full  sense  of  the 
word,  a  despot.  "I  will  chastise  you  exemplarily, 
Russian  fashion,"  said  he.  Russian  fashion!  In  fact, 
he  did  resemble,  in  more  than  one  trait,  with  less  gen- 
ius, be  it  understood,  his  neighbor,  Czar  Peter,  whom 
he  strongly  admired.  Between  these  two  men  the  prin- 
cipal difference  was  marked  by  longitude.  Frederick 
William  reigned  at  the  extremity  of  the  old,  historic 
European  region;  but  he  was  included  within  this 
reign,  while  th>  country  of  Peter,  according  to  the  ge- 
ography and  politics  of  the  time,  was  Asia.  The  King 
of  Prussia  was*a  part  of  Europe  and  the  Holy  Empire : 
his  subjects  had  the  right  of  men;  he  was  more  civilized, 


118  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

more  of  a  Christian,  than  the  great  barbarian;  a  Czar 
Peter,  attenuated  by  race  and  surroundings.  His  orgies 
never  reached  indecency.  The  queen  had  a  hard  life 
with  him,  but  he  never  raised  his  hand  to  her.  It  was 
not  the  ax  the  royal  hand  wielded,  but  the  stick;  if, 
however,  he  submitted  this  Empire  to  a  better  and 
higher  civilization,  it  was  not  without  rebellion.  In 
reality,  he  admitted  no  law  that  interfered  with  his 
supreme  right :  he  was  an  autocrat. 

He  had  a  horror  of  lawyers,  "  poor  devils  of  jurists," 
and  he  held  magistrates  in  contempt.  One  day  he  was 
requested  to  give  employment  to  a  young  man.  He 
wrote:  "If  he  has  intelligence  and  a  good  head,  put 
him  in  the  Chamber  of  Administration.  If  he  is  an 
imbecile,  make  a  magistrate  of  him."  There  is  in  this 
sentiment,  strange  for  a  king  to  have,  the  rancor  of  a 
contestor  who  has  lost  many  suits,  for  the  judges  often 
put  the  wrong  on  the  agents  of  his  domains.  There  is 
also  in  it  a  disdain  for  an  obscure  science,  and  old,  un- 
decipherable parchments.  But  it  seems  to  me  well  that 
Frederick  William  did  not  admit  the  interposition  be- 
tween himself  and  subjects  of  a  body  of  judges,  nor 
the  ways  of  justice.  His  incapability  of  disentangling 
an  abstraction  made  him  incarnate  himself  as  justice. 
He  was  the  judge  in  flesh  and  bones;  he  distributed 
justice  personally,  like  the  kings  of  primitive  mon- 
archies, like  St.  Louis  on  the  steps  of  the  Sainte  Cha- 
pelle,  or  at  the  foot  of  the  oak  at  Vincennes,  but  not 
with  a  spirit  of  mercy  or  charity.  If  he  corrected  the 
judgments,    it  was    to    increase    the    punishment.      He 


THE    FATHER.  119 

pronounced  motu  proprio  imprisonment  at  Spandau  and 
the  penalty  of  death. 

Thus,  no  one  felt  safe  from  his  will,  his  caprices,  his 
fits  of  rage.  In  these  crises, — when  "out  of  respect  to 
his  crown,  they  could  not  compare  him  to  a  maniac 
with  a  razor  in  his  hand," — everybody  trembled,  and 
committed  their  souls  to  God.  Even  the  Foreign  Min- 
isters were  afraid.  Once, — during,  it  is  true,  one 
of  the  greatest  storms  of  passion  that  the  king  ever 
had, — the  French  Minister  begged  his  government  to 
make  provision  for  his  safety:  "without  which  I  will 
have  a  sorry  time  of  it."74  Did  not  the  king  take  it  into 
his  head  at  one  time,  upon  hearing  the  news  that  some 
of  his  recruiters  were  arrested  in  Saxony  and  condemned 
to  death,  to  send  word  to  his  minister  resident  there, 
that  if  one  of  these  men  were  touched  he  would 
be  hung  ?     Judge  by  this  the  terror  of  his  subjects. 

And  so  they  longed  for  the  moment  when  they  should 
be  rid  of  him.  Even  his  officers,  whom  he  held  under 
such  terrible  discipline,  and  whom  he  ruined  by  oblig- 
ing them  to  make  recruits  throughout  Europe,  detested 
him  heartily.  Forty  of  his  big  Grenadiers,  exasperated 
by  hard  drills  and  bad  treatment,  laid  a  plot  to  set  fire 
to  the  four  corners  of  Potsdam,  to  roast  him  there  and 
bury  him  in  the  ruins.  The  civil  population  were  sub- 
jected to  the  sight  of  the  corporals  executing  their 
order  to  recruit  immediately  forty  supernumeraries  for 
each  company,  "by  arresting  by  main  force  in  the 
streets  and  houses,  wherever  they  could  be  found,  even 
children  of  six  years,  whom  the  officers  forced  the  fam- 
ilies to  ransom.  " 


120  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

Thus  there  is  no  house  where  there  are  no  murmurs. 
"The  people  are  greatly  discontented.  They  hope 
and  believe  that  this  distress  cannot  endure  always. 
There  are  all  the  appearances,"  wrote  Rottenburg, 
"of  a  revolution.  Everything  is  preparing  for  it." 
The  king  bitterly  felt  his  unpopularity;  he  knew  his 
death  was  desired,  even  near  him,  in  his  family,  a  thing 
which  fairly  enraged  him.  In  one  of  his  attacks  a  doc- 
tor made  the  remark  "that  it  was  not  necessary  for  him 
to  go  every  day  to  the  parade."  He  answered  "that 
they  would  believe  him  dead  if  he  did  not  go."  He 
would  have  preferred  really  to  be  sick,  provided  that 
they  believed  him  well,  rather  than  be  cured  by  giving 
the  public  the  pleasure  that  he  supposed  his  illness 
would  give  them.75 

FREDERICK    WILLIAM'S    RELIGION. 

From  the  public  hatred,  from  his  pain,  sorrow  and 
passion,  Frederick  William  sought  refuge  in  God.  His 
faith  was  sincere,  warm,  expressive;  it  had  great  bursts  of 
enthusiasm,  but  it  was  simple  as  well  as  practical.  He 
wished  no  erudition,  and  became  irritated  with  the  dis- 
putes of  the  theologians.  He  mistreated  the  professors 
and  preachers  who  resisted  his  desire  to  reconcile  the 
Lutherans  and  Calvinists.  "The  difference  between 
our  two  evangelical  religions  is  but  a  quarrel  between 
priests,"  he  said.  "From  the  outside  the  difference  is 
great,  but  when  one  looks  into  it  well,  one  can  see  that 
the  faith  is  the  same  upon  all  points, — upon  salvation, 
and  upon  communion.  Only,  among  the  preachers, 
some   make   the   sauce   more    bitter   than    others.      May 


THE    FATHER.  121 

God  pardon  all  priests !  For  they,  who  stir  up  <  school- 
rats'  *  to  put  at  variance  the  true  word  of  God, 
will  have  to  render  an  account  before  His  tribunal. 
The  true  pastors,  those  that  say  they  must  be  toler- 
ant toward  one  another  and  apply  themselves  only  to 
augmenting  the  glory  of  Christ,  wTill  be  saved.  For  it 
will  not  be  said  (on  judgment  day):  Art  thou  a  Lu- 
theran or  art  thou  a  Reformer  (Calvinist)?  It  will  be 
said :  Hast  thou  observed  my  commandments,  or  hast 
thou  been  a  good  Dlsputator  f  It  will  be  said  :  To  the 
fire  or  to  the  devil  with  the  contentious  ones;  but,  to 
those  who  have  observed  my  commandments,  come  with 
me  into  my  kingdom.  May  God  be  merciful  to  all  ! 
May  all  his  evangelical  children  observe  his  command- 
ments. As  to  those  who  cause  disunion,  may  God  send 
them  to  the  devil." 

As  much  as  the  theological  disputes,  he  hated  vain 
eloquence,  "  oratorical  expressions,  artistic,  allegorical, 
and  flowery  words  .  .  .  useless  repetitions,  diffuse 
explications  of  texts.  .  .  ."  Through  an  official 
order  he  forbade  the  use  of  rhetoric  "  by  all  preachers 
under  the  age  of  forty,"  those  who  were  older  than  that 
being  incapable  of  changing  their  habits.  He  prohib- 
ited their  preaching  more  than  an  hour,  under  penalty 
of  a  fine  of  two  thalers.  An  hour  was  enough  "for 
a  short  and  edifying  explanation  of  the  text,  to  find 
conclusions,  and  conclusions,  too,  that  would  touch 
the  hearts  of  the  congregation  and  convince  them." 
The  duty  of  the  pastor  was,  "to  awaken  clear  ideas  in 
the  understanding,  and  to  incline  the  will  to  do  right, 


122  FREDERICK   THE    GREAT. 

not  to  show  his  art  and  erudition."  It  was  to  teach 
"active  Christianity, —  thatiges  Christenthum"™ 

Frederick  William  meant  by  active  Christianity,  that 
which  would  be  of  service  in  practical  life,  such  as  he 
understood  it.  That  which  he  called  drawing  conclu- 
sions from  a  text  was,  for  example,  to  excite  his 
Grenadiers  to  heroism,  after  their  having  heard  the 
story  of  David  killing  Goliath,  or  of  Benjamin,  who, 
with  a  stick,  felled  an  Egyptian  armed  cap-d-pie.  Of 
the  two  Testaments,  the  old  most  properly  applied 
to  the  king's  service.  Thus,  his  God  was  the  God 
of  Israel,  the  God  of  armies,  who,  in  his  anger,  pun- 
ished for  revenge.  Frederick  William  must  have  been 
as  sensible  to  the  poetry  of  the  Bible  as  he  was  to 
the  music  of  Handel,  and  was  moved  by  the  singing 
of  certain  psalms;  but  his  ear  was  deaf  to  the  words  of 
the  gospel  and  to  the  mystic  parables.  If  he  had  ever 
meditated  upon  the  evangelical  invitation  to  pious  in- 
ertia and  to  the  holy  repose  upon  the  bosom  of  the  Sav- 
iour, he  could  not  have  repressed  an  interior  protestation. 
The  texts  which  speak  of  the  birds  of  the  air,  nour- 
ished by  the  divine  hand,  and  of  the  lilies  clothed  in 
splendor,  though  they  spin  not,  appeared  to  him  to  have 
a  dangerous  application.  If  his  eyes  happened  to  fall 
upon  the  verses  telling  of  Jesus'  visit  to  Lazarus,  he 
quickly  turned  the  page,  but  not  so  quickly  as  not  to  give 
the  right  to  Martha  instead  of  Mary,  for,  had  he  been  in 
the  Saviour's  place,  he  would  have  beaten  Mary.  And 
then,  besides,  he  confessed  he  was  powerless  to  compre- 
hend the  charity  of  Christ. 

"You  need  not  teach  me,"  said  he  to  Pastor  Francke, 


THE    FATHER.  123 

"that  if  one  gives  me  a  blow  on  one  cheek  I  must  pre- 
sent the  other,  too."  "The  words  of  Christ  are  there," 
answered  the  pastor,  "and  cannot  be  changed." 
Francke  explained,  then,  that  the  Saviour  did  not 
absolutely  command  you  to  turn  the  other  cheek,  and 
that  He  desired  only  to  prevent  individual  vindica- 
tion. "Yes,"  replied  the  king,  "we  are  in  a  ter- 
rible position;  if  we  wish  to  let  everything  pass,  we 
are  taken  for  idlers  and  cowards;  if  we  wish  to 
avenge  ourselves  we  run  the  risk  of  losing  our  souls 
or  the  souls  of  others.  The  question  is,  what  to  do?" 
"  I  know  well  what  I  would  do,"  said  Francke.  And 
the  king  added:  "So  do  I.  Thou  wouldst  say  to  one 
who  attacked  thee:  My  dear  friend,  I  am  pained  to  see 
you  sin  in  this  way.  May  God  pardon  you!".  "Ex- 
actly," said  Francke,  "and  what  I  could  do,  others 
could  do."  "Not  I,"  retorted  the  king,  "that  does  not 
apply  to  me  !  "77 

It  was  not,  then,  the  merciful  God  that  Frederick 
William  invoked  in  his  short  prayers  or  consulted  in 
the  long  close  intercourse.  One  day  he  reproached 
Ilgen  in  such  a  violent  manner,  accusing  him  of 
partiality  in  regard  to  England,  that  the  unhappy 
man  began  to  cry,  and  finally  fainted,  which  termi- 
nated the  controversy.  The  king  declared  "that  he 
was  going  to  take  a  horseback  ride,  so  that  he  could 
pray  to  God."  He  wandered  about  the  fields  alone  for 
over  four  hours.  "  On  his  return  he  poured  forth  all 
the  horrible  invectives  imaginable  against  England, 
saying  that  he  would  have  full  revenge."  Rotten- 
burg,  who  recited  the  scene  to  Ilgen,  ended  with  these 


124  FREDERICK   THE    GREAT. 

words:  "Time  and  modesty  prevent  me  from  repeat- 
ing the  infamous  and  obscene  language  used  in  this 
discourse." 

The  Christian  whom  God  inspired  with  such  anger 
could  not  find  much  comfort  in  his  faith.  So  it  was, 
even  in  his  religion,  Frederick  William  was  restless, 
unsteady.  He  knew  well  that  his  duty  was  "to  spread 
abroad  the  honor  of  God  and  the  royalty  of  Jesus 
Christ."  He  wished  his  subjects  to  feel  the  word  of 
God  in  their  hearts  as  he  did  in  his  heart.  But  he  was 
not  contented  with  himself.  "I  am  a  wicked  man," 
said  he  to  Fran  eke.  "  If  I  am  good  one  day,  I  return 
to  my  wickedness  the  next."  He  feared  for  the  salva- 
tion of  his  soul,  and  he  was  afraid  of  hell,  afraid  of  the 
devil.  "Ah!  yes,  the  way  to  heaven  is  very  hard, — 
Ja,  es  ist  schwer  in  Himmel  zu  kommen/"  Difficult 
above  all  for  a  king,  who  was  responsible  not  only  for 
his  own  sins,  but  for  those  he  allowed  to  be  omitted  or 
committed  by  others.  This  was  the  reason  that,  during 
his  hours  of  melancholia,  he  spoke  of  abdicating:  "I 
do  not  see  any  other  way  for  my  salvation,  and  I  should 
like  so  much  to  be  saved  !"78  He  saw  himself,  then,  re- 
tired to  his  palace  at  Wusterhausen,  with  ten  thousand 
crowns  a  year.  He  shared  with  his  wife  and  daughters 
the  care  of  the  housekeeping:  "I  will  pray  to  God, 
and  will  have  a  care  to  the  economy  of  the  country." 

He  seemed  born,  in  fact,  for  this  life  of  a  country 
gentleman.  He  would  have  cultivated  his  ground  mar- 
velously  well ;  he  would  have  improved  it  each  year, 
cleared  the  woods,  drained  the  marshes,  established  a 
brewery   or  distillery,    constructed  new  buildings,    and 


THE    FATHER.  125 

made  sure  of  the  sale  of  his  products.  He  would  have 
kept  all  hands  under  strict  discipline,  meddling  with  ev- 
erything, even  to  the  laundry,  kitchen  and  pantry.  He 
would  have  been  upon  all  backs  at  the  same  time,  crying 
out,  scolding,  and  giving  blows.  He  would  have  been 
the  most  ardent  hunter  among  the  Junker  of  Branden- 
burg. He  would  have  been  at  the  head  of  the  largest 
eaters  and  strongest  drinkers,  at  a  carousal  or  intem- 
perate repast,  a  la  Pantagruel.  In  the  evening  he  would 
have  smoked  his  pipe  with  his  people  and  neighbors, 
discussed  at  length  upon  the  subjects  of  sowing  grain, 
fertilizing  the  ground,  upon  the  hunt,  comparing  the 
merits  of  wine  and  beer,  and  arguing  upon  grace  and 
original  sin.  He  would  have  prayed  to  God  with  his 
family  and  domestics,  and  then  alone,  asking  him  in  all 
simplicity  to  spare  his  harvests  from  hail,  and  reserve 
it  for  the  fields  of  others.  He  would  have  sung  the 
psalms  in  church  and  at  home,  and  found  in  the  Bible 
applications  of  active  Christianity  for  his  intendants  and 
domestics.  He  would  have  economized  with  his  ten 
thousand  crowns,  and  added  to  this  economy  the  annual 
surplus  of  his  farm,  for  each  year  he  would  have  pro- 
duced ein  plus.  He  would  have  at  last  slept  in  the 
arms  of  the  Saviour,  leaving  to  his  heir  the  finest  estate 
in  the  country,  and  a  nice  pile  of  gold  in  order  to  make 
it  still  more  valuable,  to  buy  such  and  such  a  domain 
that  he  desired,  or  to  gain  a  lawsuit  that  he  had  always 
wished  to  engage  in  against  such  and  such  a  one,  with- 
out daring  to  do  so,  because  he  invariably  mistrusted 
judges  and  justice,  and  the  fear  of  losing  it  had  calmed 
his  passion  for  gain. 


126  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

Upon  the  throne,  Frederick  William  was  this 
gentleman  farmer.  He  governed  his  kingdom  like  a 
proprietor  his  estate.  Instead  of  acres,  there  were 
thousands  and  thousands  of  squares  that  he  cleared 
or  drained.  Instead  of  barns  and  stables,  he  built 
cities.  King,  instead  of  an  ordinary  individual,  the  ob- 
jects of  his  activity  were  on  a  larger  scale,  as  well  as 
his  good  qualities  and  his  defects,  his  good  and  bad 
passions,  his  joys  and  sorrows.  But  he  it  is  who  was 
always  on  the  scene  of  action,  and  with  all  his  indi- 
viduality, his  strange  personality.  His  strong,  clear 
intellect,  whenever  it  was  applied  to  things  that  he 
knew,  and  over  which  he  had  direct  authority,  was 
capable  of  seeing  all  the  details,  each  one  separately,  but 
also  in  its  place  in  the  whole.  He  was  fond  of  the  real, 
the  visible,  the  tangible;  a  contemner  of  everything 
luxurious  and  ideal.  Always  occupied  in  regulations, 
he  was  fully  satisfied  in  the  contemplation  of  a  model 
regiment,  where  everything  was  in  its  place,  battalions, 
companies,  sections,  men,  and  upon  each  man  each  piece 
of  uniform  and  arms;  where  the  motion  of  the  individ- 
ual was  but  a  portion  of  the  whole  movement;  where  all 
the  attention  was  fixed  on  the  number  of  steps  desired. 

Like  a  regiment,  the  king  maneuvered  agriculture, 
industry,  and  religion ;  but  he  was  troubled  by  the 
slightest  resistance  to  classification  and  placing  in  the 
ranks.  He  did  not  know  how  to  find  the  true  mode  of 
relationship  to  exterior  powers.  At  the  least  hitch  he 
would  lose  patience,  mourn  over  it,  and  suffer.  Then 
he  would  divert  himself  by  the  grotesque,  by  carica- 
ture, and  by  a  certain  taste  for  drollery  which  reached 


THE    FATHER.  127 

the  fantastic,  or  he  would  solace  himself  through  anger, 
or  by  orgies,  or  perhaps,  at  last,  make  his  prayers  to 
God,  lay  his  griefs  before  his  Maker.  In  these  few 
moments  he  was  sincere,  honest  and  frank,  having 
neither  the  power  over  himself  to  dissimulate,  nor  the 
time  to  arrange  his  lies.  His  cj)irtempt Jx>r  jjeremony, 
his  distaste  for  vain  ..show, --were,  his  princely  virtues;  he 
went  straight  to  the  fact,  the  real.  His  application  and 
activity  were  of  such  intensity  that  they  penetrated  the 
men  and  the  countries  over  which  they  were  exercised, 
and  created  a  force  that  was  marked  with  his  impress. 
The  Prussia  of  bureaus  and  barracks,  devoted  to  the 
God  of  armies,  stubbornly  at  work,  proud  of  herself 
even  to  boastfulness,  disciplined  even  to  servitude,  is 
truly  the  one  that  Frederick  William  reared  in  sorrow 
and  affliction. 


CHAPTER   III. 

THE    CONFLICT    BETWEEN    FATHER    AND    SON FIRST  SYMP- 
TOMS   AND    CAUSES    OF    CONFLICT. 

In  the  month  of  March,  1724,  Frederick  William 
and  his  son  honored  with  their  presence  a  fete  given 
by  General  von  Grumbkow,  one  of  the  principal  minis- 
ters of  the  Court  of  Prussia.  The  king  suddenly  said, 
pointing  to  the  Crown  Prince:  "I  should  like  to  know 
what  is  passing  in  this  little  head.  I  know  his  ideas 
are  not  the  same  as  my  own,  —  class  er  nicht  so  denkt  wie 
ich ;  there  are  people  who  give  him  other  sentiments 
than  mine,  and  excite  him  to  blame  everything  ;  they 
are  rascals."  He  repeated  the  word,  and,  addressing 
his  son,  said:  "Fritz,  listen  to  what  I  am  going  to 
say  to  thee.  Keep  always  a  good,  large  army;  thou 
canst  not  have  a  better  friend,  and,  without  this  friend, 
thou  wilt  not  be  able  to  sustain  thyself.  Our  neigh- 
bors desire  nothing  better  than  to  make  us  turn  a 
somersault.  I  know#  their  intentrions;  thou  wilt  learn 
to  know  them.  Believe  me,  do  not  trust  in  vanity; 
attach  thyself  to  the  real,  —  halte  dich  an  das  Reelle. 
Have  thou  a  good  army  and  money.  In  these  consist 
the  glory  and  the  security  of  a  prince."  Saying  this, 
he  gave  Fritz  some  little  taps  on  the  cheek,  which 
became  harder  and  harder,  and  finally  resembled  blows.79 

At  the  time  of  this  first  open  disagreement  between 


FATHER    AND    SON.  129 

_j[athex-and  aon,  tho  Crowir  Prinre~ivas-4w-elTe  years~o-Ldr 
The  misunderstanding  was  already  complete  and  well 
known.  The  foreign  ministers  informed  their  courts, 
and  in  their  dispatches  commented  upon  the  king's 
words.  The  prince's  nature  could  not  support  the  tax 
upon  his  strength  that  his  father  imposed.  Frederick 
William  tired  and  harassed  him  so  much  that  the  child 
had  an  old  look,  as  though  he  had  been  through  many 
campaigns^  and  walked  with  his  back  curved.  The 
king  wished  to_accustom_him  to_hard ships:  every  mark 
of  weakness  orjigli  eaten  ess  enraged  jiim.  He  had  a  ter- 
rible scene  with  his  son  for  wearing  gloves  at  the 
hunt  on  a  bitter  cold  day.  Another  time  he  designated 
a  horse  that  Fritz  should  ride;  the  equerry  ventured  to 
remark  that  the  animal  was  hard-mouthed ;  the  king 
pushed  him  off  and  ordered  him  to  keep  quiet;  but,  on 
leaving  Potsdam,  a  gust  of  wind  blew  His  Majesty's 
hat  off,  which  made  the  prince's  horse  run  away;  he  had 
the  presence  of  mind  to  take  his  feet  from  the  stirrups 
and  throw  himself  to  the  ground.  He  injured  his 
knees,  hip  and  neck.  The  guard  of  his  sword  so  hurt 
his  side  that  he  spat  blood.  On  their  return  the  queen 
became  excited ;  she  groaned  and  cried.  The  king  was 
exasperated  about  it;  he  ordered  "his  son  to  appear  the* 
next  day  at  mount  of  guard.  The  wounded  prince 
was  actually  there,  unable  to  have  his  arm  in  the 
sleeve  of  his  jacket. 

The  prince  had  a  decided  taste  for  elegance  and  mag- 
nificence, and  all  the  luxuries  of  life.  He  had  but  few 
means  of  gratifying  this  propensity,  but  he  did  what 
he  could.     He  did  not  like  to  eat  with  a  two-pronged 


130  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

steel  fork,  which  was  in  use  in  the  inns  throughout 
Germany,  and  resembled  a  defensive  weapon.  The 
king  surprised  him  one  day,  eating  with  a  three-pronged 
silver  fork       He  beat  him.80 

If  some  fairy  had  permitted  Frederick  William  to 
make  three  wishes  at  the  birth  of  his  son,  he  would 
have  expressed  them  without  a  moment's  hesitation  : 
' '  May  my  son  be  a  good  _ecanomist,  soldier  and-Chris- 
tian."  But  Fritz  was  not  given  to  economy.  The  king 
wished  that  the  prince  should  keep  an  "account  of  his 
ducats,"  as  he  formerly  did,  with  an  exactitude  that 
made  his  mother  despair  and  become  alarmed  to  see 
him  a  "miser  at  so  tender  an  age,"  but  Fritz  left  this 
commission  to  others.  He  did  not  wish  to  learn  how 
"to  manage  his  money."81  MoreovBi^Jbe  was  unselfish, 
liberal  and  charitable.  In  a  journey  that  he  made  while 
stopping  at  MagcTeburg  for  the  first  time,  he  was  offered 
the  customary  present  that  the  city  owed  to  the  heir-ap- 
parent, he  refused  it.  Forced  by  his  father  to  accept 
the  gift,  he  declared  he  would  keep  it  until  his  acces- 
sion, and  then  distribute  it  among  the  poor  inhabitants 
oppressed  with  heavy  taxes.  In  passing  through  the 
city  of  Stassfurt,  they  wished  to  "honor  him  with  two 
hundred  ducats:"  he  ordered  it  to  be  given  to  the 
poor,  and  forbade  his  tutors  to  breathe  a  word  of  this 
generosity  to  the  king.82 

F rjtz^jl i d  not_JH^e_  mill tary  men.  He  found  them 
coarse  and  ridiculous,  and  preferred  to  their  company 
"men  who  knew  something."  He  played  tricks  on 
the  generals.  He  dined  one  day  in  Westphalia,  with 
the  king,  at  the  Castle  of  Rosendaal,  the  estate  of  Gen- 


FATHER    AND    SON.  131 

eral  von  der  Mosel.  After  dinner  they  were  going  on 
a  hunt.  The  old  general,  who  drank  a  little  more 
than  was  reasonable  in  order  to  honor  his  guests,  tried 
to  mount  the  saddle,  but  the  prince  had  made  his  stir- 
rups too  short,  and  looked  on  at  the  scene  very  much 
amused.83  Now,  the  king  was  exceedingly  fond  of 
jokes,  but  they  were  only  to  be  played  on  scholars  and 
professors. 

Would  Fritz  continue  to  be  a  good  Christian  ?  At 
the  end  of  his  visit  to  Wusterhausen  Professor  Francke 
was  very  uneasy  on  this  subject.  It  was  to  him  alone, 
in  the  midst  of  the  general  attention,  that  Frederick 
did  not  address  a  word.  "One  would  think,"  wrote 
the  poor  man  in  his  journal,  "that  he  was  angry  about 
something."  At  last,  Frederick  called  him  on  the  fifth 
day ;  but  he  received  his  compliments  with  a  bad 
grace,  and  only  said  a  few  words  to  him.  Francke 
awaited  an  expression  of  thanks  for  the  highly  edify- 
ing tracts  that  he  had  sent  to  the  prince:  it  was  the 
tutor  who  thanked  him,  and  with  that  Frederick  left 
the  room.  The  next  day,  at  table,  the  king  not  being 
there,  the  pastor  perceived  that  the  prince,  during  a 
conversation  upon  apparitions,  looked  at  him  with  a 
mocking  air.  As  he  was  rising  from  the  table,  he 
heard  him  say  quite  loud:  "There  goes  one  who 
believes  in  ghosts."  He  learned  that  the  evening  be- 
fore, the  Castellan  of  Wusterhausen,  a  remarkably 
devout  man,  met  the  prince,  who  asked  him  where  he 
was  taking  the  light  he  held  in  his  hand:  "Your 
Highness,  to  Professor  Francke,"  he  responded. 
"Then,"  said    the    prince,    "it  is  a  pharisee    going  to 


132  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

a  pharisee,  for  he  is  one  as  well  as  you."  The 
troubled  pastor  made  a  resolve  to  pray  to  God  for 
the  heir-apparent.  And  truly,  Fritz  had  certainly  great 
need  to  be  prayed  for.84  He  had  "a  natural  tendency 
toward    all    sciences,"  but  heneglected  sacred   science. 


He  was  to  receive  confirmation  in  April,  1727  ;  he 
was  confirmed  then,  but  to  be  prepared  for  this  cere- 
mony the  pastor  had  to  give  him  double  the  amount 
of  lessons.  His  tutors  had  to  acknowledge  to  the  king 
that  he  had  neglected  religious  instruction  for  six 
months.85 

Neither  economist,  soldier,  nor  devotee,  this  son 
must  have  troubled  the  very  inmost  depths  of  the  soul 
of  the  father  whom  we  know.  It  would  have  been  a 
miracle,  if  Frederick  William  had  not  allowed  himself 
to  give  vent  to  his  terrible  temper  against  him.  He 
commenced  by  little  taps  which  soon  resembled  blows ; 
then  the  real  blows  followed.  He  struck  Fritz  be- 
cause of  the  gloves  he  wore  at  the  hunt ;  he  struck 
him  for  the  three-pronged  fork.  As  he  was  very 
prompt  to  act,  and  carried  everything  to  extremes,  he 
immediately  gave  up  all  hope  in  regard  to  his  son. 
The  child  to  whom  he  tendered  a  kind  of  fraternal 
affection,  true  respect,  and  absolute  confidence,  the 
little  Frederick,  —  Fritzen,  —  appeared  to  him  to  be  a 
rebel,  and  a  very  dangerous  one.  The  French  Minis- 
ter, giving  notice  of  "the  alienation  of  the  king  and 
prince,"  feared  "that  it  might  go  far."86  Already,  the 
king  was  comparing  the  elder  revolting  son  to  the 
younger  one,  William.  He  showed  toward  him  all 
the  tenderness  of  which  he  was  capable.     At  table,  he 


FATHER   AND    SON.  *    .  X# 

made  him  say  grace,  and  stood  with  his  head  bowed 
and  hands  joined,  behind  the  chair  of  the  little  fellow. 
If  he  was  suffering,  he  would  go  to  see  him  and 
cover  him  with  kisses ;  he  would  stop  when  he  met  the 
child,  raise  him  in  his  arms  and  kiss  him  for  some 
minutes  at  a  time.  He  would  say:  "I  will  not 
wager  much  on  such  and  such  of  my  children,  but 
(pointing  to  little  William)  I  have  confidence  in  this 
one  ;  he  has  a  good  character  ;  I  will  guarantee  that 
he  will  be  an  honest  man."87  It  is  permissible  to  be- 
lieve that  even  at  that  date,  three  years  before  the 
tragic  crisis,  Frederick  William  could  not  keep  from 
thinking  that  the  Kingdoj%u~of— Prussia  wou44-4ae_  well 
placeclin^the  hands  of  this_vjmngerson,  who  promised 
to  be  an  honest  man.  As  to  the  eldest,  he  could  no 
longer  bear  the  sight  of  him.  Then  the  family  life 
became  intolerable :  a  kind  of  terror  hung  over  the 
royal  house ;  the  queen  cried  every  day.  The  prince's 
face  was  painful  to  see;  everybody  noticed  the  " black 
melancholy "  in  his  great  eyes.  He  confessed  it  to 
his  friends,  and  letters  from  him  express  distaste  of 
life.  He  made  excuses  to  a  sick  friend,  Lieutenant 
von  Borcke,  for  not  trying  to  divert  him:  "I  have 
rather  need  of  some  diversion  myself  to  rid  me  of 
this  melancholia "  ;  he  begged  him  not  to  die,  saying  : 
' 'Death  is  a  thing  I  fear  the  most  for  my  friends, 
but  the  least  for  myself."88 

At  the  Court  and  throughout  the  kingdom,  public 
opinion  pvprpsspd  itsjRJf__g,gainst  thftTcrng.,  jFor  the  in- 
terestmg_jdctim.  It  truly  seemed  that  the  prince  had 
committed  no  other  crime  than    that   of    failing  to  re- 


^±  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

semble  his  father.  We  cannot  blame  him  for  pre- 
ferring a  silver  fork  to  one  of  steel  ;  for  wearing 
gloves  when  it  was  freezing  cold  ;  for  being  liberal  ; 
or  even  for  mocking  an  old  drunken  general  and  a 
pastor  who  believed  in  ghosts  ;  nor  for  the  excellent 
taste  he  evinced,  "of  being  interested  in  the  sciences 
and  liking  to  talk  with  those  who  knew  something." 
This  prosaic  father  who  wished  to  Imry  a  child  of 
twelve  years  in  practicalities,  to  whom  he  denied  the 
right  of  admiring  or  loving  anything  outside  of  mili- 
tary life  and  economy,  —  this  brutal  man  who  railed 
and  struck  about  him  with  little  or  no  reason  for  it, 
had  the  appearance  of  being  a  cruel  maniac,  an  abom- 
inable tyrant.  But,  to  be  just,  and  to  give  to  each 
the  exact  responsibility  due  him  in  the  approaching 
denouement,  conclusions  must  not  be  so  quickly 
drawn. 

First  of  all,  look  around  the  father  and  son,  study 
Frederick's  surroundings  as  he  grew  to  manhood,  the 
influences  at  work,  then  scrutinize  his  actions,  ques- 
tion his  intentions,  discover,  as  soon  as  it  presents 
itself,  his  youthful  individuality,  which  is  not  so 
simple  as  that  of  his  father.  "There  are  some,"  said 
the  king,  "who  give  him  other  sentiments  besides  my 
own."     Who  are  these  people  ? 

We  already  know  that,  without  meaning  to  do  so, 
^rederick^s_masters  inspired  him  with  ideas  and  modes 

of    thought entirely    contrary  _to  those    of    the    king. 

The  nature  of  the  child  lent  itself  freely  to  their  in- 
fluence ;  and  in  receiving  it,  he  followed  an  instinct. 
Of  his  own  will,  he  added  to  *the   permitted    reading, 


FATHER    AND    SON. 


137 


the  forbidden  reading.  His  mind  thus  accustomed 
itself  to  living  in  a  different  world  from  that  he  saw 
around  him.  There  was  no  personage  in  Telemachus 
to  whom  Frederick  William  could  be  compared,  neither 
was  there  any  one  in  the  romances  of  chivalry.  All 
the  drinkers,  smokers,  and  sword-dragging  men  of 
Berlin  and  Potsdam  were  particularly  coarse  after  the 
ancient  sages,  and  adventurous,  gallant,  chevaliers. 
But  Frederick  had  not  received  his  education  from 
tutors  only;  it  now  remains  to  place  near  the  masters, 
in  their  quality  of  educators  and  inspirers  of  the 
Crown  Prince,  two  persons  whom  he  loved  and  who_ 
were  tenderly  devoted  to  him,  the  queen  and  the  oldest 
prince^s^J^iJiielmina^ 

THE    MOTHER    OF    FREDERICK. 

Queen  Sophia  Dorothea  was  an  imposing  person. 
She  was  large  and  strong  ;  her  form  which  had  been 
* 'one  of  the  handsomest  in  the  world"  had  rapidly 
grown  stout,  and  the  arm-chairs^  had  to  be  enlarged 
for  her.  She  had  a  noble  and  majestic  carriage.  Her 
face  was  not  beautiful.  Her  features  were  strongly 
marked,  and  not  one  of  them  was  perfect.  She  knew 
how  to  be  affable,  agreeable,  unaffected,  but  her  whole 
physiognomy  showed  her  pride  in  being  queen  and 
born  of  the  TTnnag  nf  TTflpnyaj-  She  had  the  germs 
of  intellectual  qualities:  "a  brilliant  mind,  which 
seemed  however  to  possess  more  solidity  than  it  did 
in  reality,"  a  taste  for  the  arts  and  sciences  to  which 
her  attention  was  not  "too  assiduously  given."  Her 
ruling  passion  was  ambition.89 


~>*  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

She  would  have  liked  to  figure  in  every  way  as 
a  great  queen,  first  of  all,  to  be  well  dressed,  as 
at  the  time,  when  a  young  girl,  she  shone  in  the 
luxurious  and  elegant  Court  of  Hanover,  that  prided 
itself  upon  being  extremely  polished.  Her  trous- 
seau had  been  ordered  from  the  best  establish- 
ment in  Paris.  The  Duchess  of  Orleans  had 
superintended  the  making,  and  Louis  XIV.,  who 
condescended  to  look  at  these  pretty  things,  ex- 
pressed the  hope  that  there  would  be  many  princes  in 
Germany  able  to  enrich  in  this  way  the  merchants  of 
his  capital.  No  doubt,  the  queen  would  have  been 
greatly  pleased  to  order  her  gowns  from  Paris.  It 
would  have  pleased  her  still  more  to  be  royally  lodged, 
with  graceful  bibelots  around  her,  like  those  the  elegant 
world  of  the  eighteenth  century  loved.  She  had  such 
a  pretty  house  built  in  the  suburbs  of  Berlin,  on  the 
Spree,  with  a  gallery  filled  with  exquisite  porcelains 
and  rooms  decorated  with  mirrors,  that  it  was  called 
Monbijou;  but  this  place  was  contracted,  and  the  queen 
passed  but  a  small  part  of  her  life  in  this  Trianon. 
As  she  was  "accustomed  to  the  world,"  she  would 
have  wished  to  preside  at  a  court,  where  ceremonials 
would  have  marked  her  royal  dignity,  at  balls  where 
hundreds  of  couples  would  have  inclined  before  her;  at 
the  card-table,  where  she  would  have  played,  with  much 
gold,  the  queen's  game.  She  would  have  given  concerts 
of  fine  music,  and  held  a  circle  of  literati,  with  whom 
she  would  have  conversed  in  French,  —  the  only  lan- 
guage suitable  for  such  a  company.90 

Unhappily,  what  the  queen  loved,  the  king  detested, 


FATHER   AND    SON.  137 

and  Sophia  Dorothea  had,  as  they  said,  a  very  sad 
lot.  Her  husband  had  a  horror  of  the  French  fashions, 
and  went  so  far  as  to  make  the  condemned,  "those  that 
were  the  greatest  criminals,"  wear  the  gallooned  hats 
and  the  bags  for  the  hair,  so  that  he  might  give  Ber- 
lin people  a  distaste  for  imitating  the  French  Minister, 
who  decked  himself  out  in  all  this  beautiful  finery. 
He  himself  set  the  example  of  simplicity.  After  hav- 
ing first  assumed  the  costume  of  a  good  citizen,  he 
afterward  wore  that  of  a  colonel,  and  never  changed  it. 
He  took  the  greatest  care  of  his  clothes ;  as  soon  as  he 
returned  to  his  cabinet  he  would  put  on  sleeves  and  an 
apron.  He  made  the  queen  many  a  rich  present,  but 
he  wished  that  his  wife  should  be  simply  dressed,  as  be- 
came a  German  woman.  He  knew  very  well  that  he 
could  not  live  as  a  private  individual,  and  that  he 
must  do  honor  to  the  King  of  Prussia;  so  he  bought 
vessels  of  gold  and  silver,  candlesticks  of  silver  and 
crystal,  silver  tables  and  arm-chairs.  He  was  very 
proud  of  this  furniture,  that  he  ordered  himself,  and 
which  cost  him  a  good,  round  sum,  thinking  besides, 
no  doubt,  that  it  was  not  all  lost,  the  metal  was  there, 
in  case  of  need.  But  these  beautiful  things  were  only 
for  state  occasions;  he  liked  neither  palaces  nor  luxu- 
rious furniture.  Of  all  his  residences,  those  he  pre- 
ferred the  most  were  his  hunting  lodges.  For  his  own 
personal  use  he  had  chairs  and  arm-chairs  of  wood. 
He  was  not  a  giver  of  feasts;  the  ball  that  he  liked  the 
best  was,  I  think,  that  of  the  fete  of  the  Anniversary  of 
Malplaquet.  After  the  dinner,  during  which  the  hunt- 
ing  horns    and    hautbois  were  heard,   and  the  healths 


138  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

were  accompanied  with  salvos  of  cannon,  the  queen  and 
princesses  would  retire.  Then  the  men  would  dance 
among  themselves.  The  king  would  take  by  the  hand 
an  officer,  making  his  choice  from  one  of  the  survivors 
of  Malplaquet,  Pannewitz,  for  instance,  who  had  re- 
ceived a  fine  gash  on  the  head  that  warm  day;91  but  the 
cold,  ceremonious  court  ball  he  could  not  endure.  He 
did  not  like  the  queen  to  hold  a  court  every  evening, 
and  Sophia  Dorothea  was  never  at  ease  except  during  his 
absences,  which  were,  fortunately,  frequent  enough. 
Yet,  with  this  terrible  man,  she  was  always  dreading  a 
surprise.  One  evening  the  king  arrived  from  a  jour- 
ney through  Prussia,  as  usual,  without  being  expected. 
There  was  a  ball  at  Monbijou :  in  a  rage,  he  left  for 
Potsdam,  without  seeing  his  wife  or  children. 

The  visits  of  princes  —  provided  that  Czar  Peter 
was  not  the  guest,  for  he  stayed  at  Monbijou,  and 
made  it  "the  desolation  of  Jerusalem" — gave  Sophia 
Dorothea  a  few  happy  days.  The  latter  part  of  May, 
1728,  she  passed  a  very  pleasant  week,  during  the 
visit  of  the  King  of  Poland  to  Berlin.  When  Augus- 
tus II.  paid  his  respects  to  her,  she  received  him  at 
the  door  of  her  third  ante-chamber.  He  extended  his 
hand  and  together  they  went  into  her  audience  cham- 
ber, where  the  princesses  were  presented.  "An  affable, 
polished  air,  accompanied  these  ceremonies."  As  he 
could  not  remain  standing,  for  he  was  worn  out  with 
his  debaucheries,  "the  queen  offered  immediately  to 
seat  him,  a  thing  to  which  he  would  not  consent  at 
first,  but  finally  he  placed  himself  on  a  stool,  the 
queen  taking  another  opposite  him."     As  the  princesses 


FATHER    AND    SON.  139 

remained  standing,  the  king  made  "  many  excuses  to 
them  for  his  impoliteness."  He  said  "something  agree- 
able to  each  one,"  and  when  he  arose,  he  would  not 
suffer  the  queen  to  reconduct  him.  The  next  Sunday, 
there  was  a  solemn  presentation  in  the  grand  apart- 
ments of  the  castle.  The  queen  advanced  from  one 
side  of  the  gallery,  with  her  daughters,  the  princesses 
of  the  blood,  and  her  Court,  while  the  two  kings 
came  from  the  other.  All  the  ladies  of  the  city 
splendidly  apparelled  were  standing  in  file.  By  the 
side  of  the  king  and  the  three  hundred  persons  of  his 
suite,  the  nobles  of  Poland  and  Saxony  clothed  lav- 
ishly, magnificently,  Frederick  William  and  the  Prus- 
sians made  a  poor  show,  "with  their  coats  so  short 
they  could  not  even  have  served  as  a  fig  leaf  for 
our  first  parents,  and  so  tight  that  they  could  not 
move.  Their  hair  was  powdered  but  not  cuiled,  and 
twisted  in  the  back  with  a  ribbon."  Notwithstanding 
all  this,  the  ceremony  of  presentation  was  brilliant. 
Since  the  late  king,  there  never  had  been  "such  an 
array  at  the  castle."  For  several  days  the  fetes  con- 
tinued :  there  were  not  only  innumerable  parades,  and 
reviews,  but  also  dinners  "  at  a  round  table,"  or  at  a 
table  of  an  odd  shape,  arranged  in  such  a  manner 
that  the  guests  represented  letters  or  objects.  Every 
evening  the  queen  held  court  and  they  danced.  Dur- 
ing these  days  of  pleasure  the  Queen  of  Prussia  felt 
that  she  really  reigned.92 

These  were  times  of  rare  good  fortune;  to  entertain 
a  guest  who  knew  how  to  give  his  hand  to  a  lady,  to 
make  excuses  for  being  seated  in  her  presence,  and  to 


140  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

find  something  agreeable  to  say  without  any  trouble. 
After  the  departure  of  the  visitor  and  his  suite  they 
returned  to  their  life  of  mere  existence,  and  even  had 
to  pay  for  the  expense  of  the  visit.  Four  days  before 
the  King  of  Poland  took  leave  the  King  of  Prussia  had 
given  the  order  "to  economize  as  much  as  possible;" 
he  reduced  the  daily  expenses  from  ninety-three  thalers 
to  seventy  or  seventy-two,  when  he  was  at  Wuster- 
hausen,  and  the  queen  at  Berlin;  to  fifty-five  when 
their  Majesties  were  together.  He  interdicted  ship- 
ments from  Hamburg,  whence  came  the  delicacies  of 
the  table,  and  charged  them  not  to  fail  in  serving  him 
only  with  "good  beef,  good  fat  chickens,  an<J  other 
like  things."93 

This  economy  was  great  torture  to  the  queen.  To 
gain  the  least  point  from  her  husband  on  this  subject 
was  a  thing  not  to  be  considered.  It  was  useless  to 
speak  to  him  of  the  liberalities  and  largesses  of  other 
princes,  of  the  luxurious  Court  of  England,  for  example; 
he  was  a  poor  king,  and  would  say:  "We  others,  we 
kings  in  trust,  must  not  stretch  the  cover  longer  than  it 
is."  The  queen  had  then  to  be  content  with  eighty 
thousand  thalers  a  year,  from  which  she  had  to  deduct 
the  expense  of  clothes  and  linen  for  the  family,  which 
was  a  large  one.  She  was  always  short  of  money.  It 
often  happened  that  she  expressed  her  sympathy  in 
good  works,  by  good  words,  and  often  excused  herself, 
as  she  did  with  Francke,  "for  not  having  her  change 
with  her."  She  would  run  into  debt,  and  did  not  know 
how  to  get  out  of  it.  Thus  she  would  speak  with  a 
sigh  of  envy  of  other  happier  women,  to  whom  nothing 


FATHER    AND    SON.  141 

was  lacking:  "When  you  have  a  contented  spirit," 
she  said,  "and  everything  is  bright  around  you,  your 
ideas  are  very  different  from  those  you  have  when  you 
are  always  under  oppression."94 

It  was  absolutely  necessary  for  her  to  bend  to  all  the 
habits  of  her  husband.  She  submitted  to  the  conver- 
sations at  dinner,  the  eternal  repetition  of  affairs,  the 
coarse  jokes,  and  the  spectacle  of  the  daily  drinking. 
Oftener  than  she  liked  she  was  present  at  the  reviews: 
admiration  for  the  military  was,  for  her,  obligatory. 
At  Wusterhausen  she  was  disturbed  by  the  confusion 
of  the  chase.  There  was  no  stated  hour  for  dinner; 
the  cook  had  to  have  it  ready  to  serve  in  twenty  min- 
utes after  the  king  had  given  the  order  to  put  it  on  the 
table.  This  might  be  at  nine,  twelve  or  three  o'clock. 
So  as  not  to  be  surprised,  the  queen  ordered  one  of  her 
domestics  to  be  always  on  the  watch,  and  give  notice 
of  the  king's  movements.  She  knew  his  order  as  soon 
as  he  gave  it.  Then  her  heavy,  corpulent  body  would 
bestir  itself :  she  would  move  about  quickly  and  dress 
in  great  haste.95 

She  suffered  from  her  husband's  angry  moods;  he 
would  abuse  her  when  there  was  some  trouble  in  his 
state  affairs,  or  when  he  imagined  he  had  cause  for 
jealousy,  making  terrible  scenes,  then,  suddenly,  would 
reinstate  himself  with  effusions  of  tenderness  in  abrupt 
interviews.  The  queen  would  scold  him,  and  predict 
that  he  would  "begin  again  soon,"  .a  thing  he  never 
failed  to  do. 

Sophia  Dorothea  would  have  liked  to  play  her  role 
in  politics.     When  she  presided  at  table,  in  the  absence 


142  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

of  the  king,  Europe  was  the  subject  of  conversation. 
The  queen  had  resolved  to  satisfy  "the  pride  and 
haughtiness  of  the  House  of  Hanover"  through  the 
marriage  of  her  children.  We  will  see  presently  the 
history  of  her  projects  of  marriage,  which  were  the 
source  of  Sophia  Dorothea's  greatest  sorrow.  It  will 
suffice  to  remark  here  that  this  pretension  to  be  a 
woman  of  state,  added  to  the  rest,  was  but  a  new  cause 
for  conflicts  with  the  king.  Thus  this  honest  household, 
which  gave  to  the  corrupted  Courts  of  Germany  and 
Europe  such  a  fine  example,  did  not  agree  upon  any- 
thing. The  queen  had  been  all  her  life,  or  nearly  so, 
discontented.  As  she  had  no  solidity  of  character,  no 
constancy,  unless  it  was  her  fixed  passion  —  ambition; 
and,  to  sum  up,  as  she  was  not  clever  in  making  friends 
and  in  meriting  sympathy  and  devotion,  she  was  like  an 
isolated  being  at  the  Court  of  Prussia;  she  detested  it, 
and  saw  only  enemies  there.  At  an  early  hour  she  be- 
gan looking  toward  the  future,  to  the  time  when  "the 
king  would  be  missing,"  and  she  would  enjoy  the  pleas- 
ure of  living  as  she  pleased,  —  of  being  queen. 

While  waiting,  she  took  charge  of  her  children,  pre- 
tended that  they  belonged  to  her  alone,  and,  young  as 
they  were,  inspired  them  with  her  rare  affections  and 
her  numerous  antipathies. 

THE    ELDEST    SISTER. 

Wilhelmina,  her  eldest  daughter,  is  made  known  to 
us  through  her  own  "Memoirs."  This  historical  docu- 
ment is  distrusted,  and  not  without  cause.  The  writer 
has  taken  a  flagrant  delight  in  making  erroneous  state- 


FATHER    AND    SON.  143 

ments,  which  were  very  far  from  being  all  involuntary. 
Discontented  with  her  lot,  that  of  the  rank  of  a  wife  of 
a  petty  prince,  (she  thought  four  different  times  that  she 
was  to  marry  a  king,)  but  half-way  happy  in  her  do- 
mestic relations,  tormented  by  the  nostalgia  of  the 
greatness  nearly  possessed,  philosopher  in  spite  of  her- 
self, she  took  revenge  in  more  than  one  way  for  her  dis- 
appointments, through  malicious  means;  without  count- 
ing what  she  did  in  imitative  literature,  while  attempt- 
ing to  govern  her  writing  by  that  of  Mile,  de  Mont- 
pensier,* — she  lost  the  power  of  expressing  real  truth. 
But  we  must  not  take  away  from  the  Memoirs  of  the 
Margravine  all  their  historical  value.  Upon  many 
points  her  testimony  has  been  confirmed  by  others. 
She  had  a  remarkable  faculty  of  seeing  persons  and 
things,  and  painting  what  she  saw.  Her  natural  malig- 
nity added  to  the  truth  while  she  observed,  added  still 
more  while  she  wrote,  "so  that  it  is  prudent,"  says 
Carlyle,  "to  take  from  the  whole  twenty-five  per  cent, 
if  you  wish  to  have  the  exact  statement; "  but  the  ques- 
tion is  here,  only  to  interrogate  Wilhelmina  about  her- 
self: she  reveals  her  personality  in  her  "Memoirs" 
with  more  truthfulness  than  she  imagined.96 

She  was  very  precocious.  !$Jie  could  barely  remember 
her  grandfather,  but  she  could  recall  amusing  him  with 
her  mimicry,  the  good  prince  passing  whole  days  in 
this  amusement.  She  was  vain  of  this  infantine  vivacity, 
that  attracted  the  notice  of  everybody.  She  certainly 
possessed,  as  she  said,  a  great  facility  for  learning,  and 
a  wonderful  memory.  She  was  the  pupil  of  La  Croze 
and  many  other  masters  to  whom  she  did  honor.      She 


144  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

spoke  English,  Italian  and  the  French  language  better 
than  Frederick  ever  did,  in  whom,  at  least  in  his 
youthful  writings,  is  observed  a  foreign  accent.  She 
was  extremely  refined,  "a  refined  mouth,"  as  Frederick 
said  later.  At  eight  years  old  she  knew  well  how  to 
take  notice  of  things  around  her.  The  description  she 
gave  of  the  visit  of  Czar  Peter  to  Berlin  in  1718,  must 
have  been  the  exact  account  of  her  impressions.97  She 
saw  the  Czar  arrive,  extend  his  hand  to  the  king,  and 
say:  "I  am  very  glad  to  see  you,  Frederick,  my 
brother;"  the  queen  repulsed  this  great  barbarian  when 
he  wished  to  embrace  her;  the  Czarina  kissed  the  hand 
of  the  queen,  and  presented  to  her  the  four  hundred 
so-called  ladies  of  her  suite,  —  maidservants,  cooks, 
washerwomen,  nearly  every  one  of  whom  carried  a 
child,  richly  dressed,  upon  her  arm.  She  gave  a  faithful 
description  of  the  Czarina — "  short,  thick  and  very 
swarthy,"  without  an  air  nor  a  grace:  "Her  dress  had 
been  bought  second-hand ;  and  it  was  old-style,  trimmed 
lavishly  with  silver,  and  it  was  very  dirty.  The  front 
of  her  bodice  was  loaded  with  precious  stones.  She 
had  a  dozen  Orders,  and  as  many  portraits  of  saints, 
and  relics  attached  to  the  whole  length  of  the  edge  of 
her  coat,  in  such  a  way  tha,t  when  she  walked  one  would 
imagine  that  one  heard  a  mule.  .  ."  This  style  of  ex- 
pression, and  this  way  of  telling  it,  Wilhelmina  found 
later,  when  she  became  a  writer,  but  the  little  girl  had 
certainly  seen  the  old  clothes,  the  dirt,  the  Orders,  and 
recognized  also  the  jingling  bells  of  a  mule. 

She    was    extremely    coquettish,    always    wishing    to 
please,  on  all  occasions  seeking  to  make  conquests.     She 


FATHER    AND    SON.  145 

won  at  once  the  Czar's  admiration.  She  had  learned 
the  lesson  well  that  had  been  taught  her,  to  speak  of 
his  fleet  and  his  victories  in  such  a  tone  that  the  great 
man  said  to  the  Czarina  that  he  would  willingly  give  up 
one  of  his  provinces  for  a  child  like  that.  She  amused 
him  very  much  by  struggling  against  his  rude  kisses: 
< 'You  will  dishonor  me!"  she  cried. 

Wilhelmina  was  not  to  be  trusted.  She  charmed  her 
grandfather,  George  I.,  and  his  English  suite,  by  her  fine 
manners  and  by  speaking  their  language  to  them.  She 
astonished  the  Polish  guests,  whose  names  she  studied 
to  pronounce  smoothly.  She  made  an  impression  upon 
Pastor  Francke,  and  asked  this  worthy  man  to  send  her 
as  a  souvenir  some  pious  books.  But  in  her  "Me- 
moirs "  she  made  fun  of  all  her  visitors,  even  her  grand- 
father, King  George,  and  she  called  the  pastor  "that 
dog  of  a  Francke  ! " 

She  excelled  in  mimicry  and  contortion,  and  prac- 
ticed to  perfection  the  art  of  fainting.  She  would  fall 
back  in  her  chair,  saying,  "I  am  dying,"  and  counter- 
feit death  so  well  for  an  hour  that  they  would  send  for 
a  physician.  •  She  took  good  care  to  recover  her  senses 
before  his  arrival,  and  get  to  bed,  where  she  had  hid- 
den beforehand  some  pieces  of  heated  turpentine:  "her 
burning  red  hands,"  she  said,  "made  every  one  believe 
that  she  had  a  high  fever  and  hot  flushes."  She  had  so 
much  control  over  herself  that  even  at  table,  when 
there  was  a  question  of  her  marriage  and  of  her  per- 
sonal interests,  at  the  time  of  the  most  vehement  quar- 
rels of  the  family,  she  appeared  as  tranquil  as  if  they 
were  talking  of  the  Grand  Turk.98 


146  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

In  spite  of  herself,  however,  she  allowed  her  pride 
of  birth  to  be  seen,  and  she  was  very  haughty,  with 
her  philosophical  airs.  We  must  acknowledge  that 
Wilhelmina  painted  by  herself  is  a  little  personage 
who  has  some  grave  defects,  as  well  as  small  ones. 

MOTHER,    DAUGHTER,    AND    SON. 

Let  us  now  return  to  Frederick.  Up  to  the  age  of 
seven  he  lived  with  his  mother  and  sister.  His  big 
sister  made  him  study  with  her,  and  together  they 
played  and  chatted.  Even  after  Fritz  had  been  placed 
under  the  authority  of  tutors,  he  saw  the  queen  and 
Wilhelmina  oftener  than  the  king.  The  queen  boasted 
of  the  education  of  her  son  as  though  it  were  her  per- 
sonal work.  She  loved  him  dearly:  Fritz  is  perhaps 
the  only  being  that  she  ever  loved.  She  suffered  from 
the  bad  treatment  which  the  child  received ;  she  tried  to 
defend  him,  and  put  herself  between  him  and  the  king. 
As  to  the  reciprocal  affection  of  brother  and  sister, 
during  the  years  of  their  youth  it  was  warm  and  sin- 
cere. " Never,"  said  Wilhelmina,  "did  tenderness  equal 
ours." 

The  mother  and  sister  influenced  Frederick  in  not 
loving  his  father.  A  child  like  Fritz  read  his  mother's 
sentiments  in  her  face,  whether  she  spoke  or  not.  And 
the  queen  talked  a  great  deal ;  oftener,  to  make  com- 
plaints. It  was  not  only  Wilhelmina,  but  also  the  For- 
eign Ministers,  who  attested  that  her  conversation  was  a 
continual  lamentation.  Is  it  true  that  she  made  a  chief 
confidante  of  her  daughter;  that  she  imagined,  in  her 
"mortal  agony,"  that  she  could  find  "consolation"  in 


FATHER    AND    SON.  147 

this  child ;  that  she  first  tried  her  discretion  so  as  to 
finally  confide  her  sorrows  to  her;  that  she  named  over  all 
her  enemies  to  this  daughter,  and  they  comprised  "three- 
fourths  of  Berlin ; "  that  she  initiated  her  in  all  the 
cabals  of  the  court ;  that  she  accustomed  her  to  hatred 
and  dissimulation  ;  that  she  gave  her  matter  to  con- 
template "through  much  reflection  and  sad  things;" 
and  that  in  the  end  she  placed  herself  in  such  a  light 
that  this  young  girl  wondered  if  she  were  not  deceiv- 
ing her,  and  if  she  were  really  her  mother?  For  my 
part,  I  believe  that  if  there  are  such  grave  exaggerations 
in  these  pages  of  the  Memoirs  against  the  queen,  there 
is  some  truth  at  the  bottom  of  it. 

At  any  rate,  the  children  saw  clearly  that,  on  all  sub- 
jects, their  mother  "thought  otherwise"  than  the  king. 
They  perceived  that  when  the  master  was  absent  the 
mistress  gave  another  tone  to  the  house.  They  had, 
through  the  queen,  a  totally  different  idea  of  life  from 
the  one  that  they  led;  where  they  would  have  been  better 
clothed  and  lodged,  where  they  could  have  eaten  more 
delicate  nourishment  with  silver  forks,  and  would  have 
been  treated  as  king's  children.  The  haughtiness  al- 
ready visible  -in  Wilhelmina,  and  which  we  soon  dis- 
cover in  Fritz,  is  "the  pride  of  the  House  of  Hanover," 
that  was  inherited  from  their  mother. 

It  was  evident  that  the  queen  obliged  her  children, 
in  choosing  between  father  and  mother,  to  take  her. 
Wilhelmina  relates  a  curious  scene.  She  had  just 
passed  through  a  series  of  illnesses,  dysentery,  jaun- 
dice and  purple  fever,  and  came  near  losing  her  life; 
the  king  and  queen  had  even  given  her,  through  much 


148  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

shedding  of  tears,  their  benediction.  The  king,  happy 
at  her  convalescence,  gave  her  permission  to  ask  a 
favor ;  she  begged  to  put  aside  her  child's  dress  :  the 
wish  was  instantly  granted,  and  a  few  days  afterward, 
madame,  the  little  royal  princess,  tried  on  her  first 
gown  with  a  train.  "I  posed  before  my  mirror,  and 
I  did  not  think  I  looked  indifferent  in  my  new  gar- 
ment. I  studied  all  my  gestures  and  carriage,  so  as  to 
have  the  air  of  a  grand  personage.  In  a  word,  I  was 
well  content  with  my  little  form.  I  descended  trium- 
phantly to  the  queen's  apartments.  Alas!  As  soon 
as  the  queen  perceived  me  from  afar,  she  cried :  'Ah  ! 
Mon  Dleu,  how  she  is  gotten  up !  Really,  this  is  a 
pretty  figure  !  She  is  as  much  like  a  midget  as  two 
drops  of  water ' ! "  Wilhelmina's  vanity  wras  greatly 
offended  by  this,  but  the  queen  soon  instructed  her  in 
the  moral  of  this  little  incident:  "she  told  me  that  she 
had  given  me  the  order  to  attach  myself  only  to  her, 
and  that,  if  ever  I  addressed  myself  to  the  king  again 
for  anything  whatsover,  she  promised  to  pour  out  her 
wrath  upon  me."  "  The  scene  is  certainly  true.  Perhaps 
it  would  be  best  to  deduct  from  the  proposed  proceed- 
ings of  the  queen  twenty-five  per  cent,  but  we  shall  pres- 
ently see  Sophia  Dorothea  conducting  herself  as  though 
these  children  belonged  solely  to  her. 

Let  us  bring  before  us  now,  in  this  court,  the  inti- 
macy of  the  brother  and  sister.  As  we  have  said,  their 
faces  were  alike;  their  inclinations  also.  They  had  the 
same  tastes  and  the  same  repugnances.  They  were 
pretty,  delicate,  and  malicious.  Wilhelmina  acted  the 
big  sister,  the  important  one;  she  gave   advice,  for  ex- 


FATHER    AND    SON.  149 

ample,  in  the  suggestion  of  the  forbidden  readings. 
They  sought  each  other  as  often  as  possible,  so  as  to 
talk  incessantly.  Of  what  did  they  converse,  if  not  of 
the  king,  the  queen,  of  what  they  saw  and  heard?  The 
little  brother  was  the  tale-bearer,  and  the  big  sister  had 
no  secrets  from  him.  The  Memoirs  of  Wilhelmina 
give  us  the  subjects  of  their  conversations;  they  were 
not  good.  First  came  the  improper  stories  about  the  do- 
mestics; of  the  brutal  Eversmann,  the  Chamberlain-jani- 
tor of  the  Castle  of  Berlin,  and  the  chamber-maids,  that 
made  it  their  business  to  spy.  Then  came  the  wicked 
doings  of  Letti;  this  demoiselle  of  the  princess'  suite, 
a  spy  also,  who  beat  her  young  mistress  and  "  regaled 
herself  every  evening,"  and  prevented  Wilhelmina  from 
sleeping  "by  snoring  like  a  trooper,"  and  who  received 
respect  from  the  wThole  court,  through  her  scheming 
nature;  from  the  queen's  ladies-in-waiting,  Sonsfeld, 
whom  she  called  a  silly  fool,  Kamken,  whom  she  called 
a  big  cow,  to  the  queen  herself,  whom  she  mentioned,  in 
speaking  of  her  to  her  daughter,  as  a  great  simpleton. 
A  fine  lady-companion,  that  the  janitor,  whom  she  had 
abused  for  neglecting  his  sweeping,  denounced  as  re- 
ceiving men! 

The  brother  and  sister  attacked  the  highest  circles, 
the  favorites  of  the  king,  particularly  Prince  Anhalt 
and  Grumbkow,  whom  the  queen  considered  her  great 
enemies.  "Anhalt,"  said  the  Margravine,  in  her  Me- 
moirs, "has  an  unbounded  ambition  which  would  make 
him  commit  any  crime  to  attain  his  object.  Grumbkow's 
fine  bearing  hides  a  knavish,  selfish,  treacherous  heart. 
His  whole  character  is  nothing  but  a  tissue  of  vices.    .   . 


150  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

He  gave  a  proof  of  his  valor  at  Malplaquet,  where  he 
remained  in  a  ditch  during  the  whole  action.  He  dis- 
tinguished himself  at  Stralsund,  and  put  his  leg  out  of 
place  at  the  beginning  of  the  campaign,  and  this  pre- 
vented his  going  to  the  trench  .  .  .  but,  with  these  ex- 
ceptions, he  was  a  brave  general."  10°  Certainly  the  two 
children  had  told  each  other  these  stories,  untrue  ones, 
too  they  were,  of  Malplaquet  and  Stralsund.  They 
heard  it  said,  also,  that  Anhalt  and  Grumbkow  induced 
their  father  to  have  his   drinking  parties. 

Wilhelmina  goes  so  far  as  to  say  that  they  tried  to 
kill  her  father  and  brother.  The  crime  was  to  have 
been  perpetrated  in  a  wooden  barrack,  where  a  comedy 
was  to  be  played.  The  queen,  warned  of  the  plot,  did 
not  reveal  it  to  the  king,  for,  in  this  strange  family, 
they  made  mysteries  of  things  that  were  the  most  im- 
portant to  disclose.  She  only  arranged  to  prevent  her 
husband  and  son  from  going  to  the  comedy.  She  dis- 
tributed the  roles:  Wilhelmina  was  to  amuse  the  king, 
to  make  him  forget  the  hour;  if  he  remembered  it, 
Fritz  was  to  cry,  to  scream.  The  scene  wTas  well  acted. 
The  king  forgot  the  hour,  but  as  soon  as  he  remem- 
bered it,  he  arose  and  took  his  son's  hand.  Fritz 
struggled  and  uttered  terrible  cries.  The  king  wanted 
to  take  him  by  force.  Wilhelmina  threw  herself  at 
his  feet,  and,  clasping  them,  watered  them  with  her 
tears.  Explanations  had  to  be  made  to  the  astonished 
and  furious  king.  The  contemplated  crime  was  a  myth; 
but  the  queen  believed  in  it,  and  so  did  Wilhelmina 
when  she  wrote  her  Memoirs.101  It  was  thus  that  she 
and   Fritz  were  persuaded  that  Anhalt  and  Grumbkow, 


FATHER    AND    SON.  151 

the  two  frequenters  of  the  palace  and  most  intimate 
companions  of  the  king,  were  his  would-be  assassins. 

These  two  youthful  minds  began  to  take  in  knowl- 
edge—  at  too  early  an  age! — to  see  nothing  in  life  but 
the  ugly  side.  They  practiced  defiance  and  scorn.  Their 
mutual  love  was  strengthened  by  the  hatred  with  which 
others  inspired  them.  Everybody  remarked  their  inti- 
macy; they  formed  a  league  apart.  Francke  saw  it: 
4 'by  the  side  of  his  little  brother*;  and  sisters,  who 
have  sincere,  innocent,  open  faces,  the  Crown  Prince  is 
silent,  exhibiting  a  melancholy  temperament;  so  also  is 
his  eldest  sister."102  At  table  they  looked  at  each  other, 
without  speaking  a  word,  no  doubt  saying  in  this  ex- 
change of  glances:  "  What  a  world  !  One  day  we  will 
change  all  this."  And  the  father  felt  the  disapproval 
of  his  son,  the  resistance  of  the  silent  lip  and  the 
evasive  eye. 

Already  the  division  of  responsibility  in  the  coming 
drama  announces  itself.  The  king's  part  is  large,  for 
there  is  no  excuse  for  his  brutality,  and  it  is  one  of  the 
causes  of  the  unhappiness  in  the  family,  but  only  one 
of  the  causes.  We  will  perceive  others  with  which  we 
will  become  more  familiar,  when  we  know  the  extra- 
ordinary history  of  the  projects  of  marriage  for  Fred- 
erick  and  Wilhelmina. 

THE     PROJECTS     OF     MARRIAGE    FOR    FREDERICK    AND    WIL- 
HELMINA.103 

For  a  long  time  the  families  of  Hanover,  England 
and  Prussia  were  pledged  to  perpetuate  their  small  gen- 
ealogy by  new  alliances.      It  was  therefore  agreed   that 


152  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

Wilhelmina  should  marry  her  cousin-german,  the  Duke 
of  Gloucester,  son  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  and  grandson 
of  King  George  L,  and  that  Frederick  should  marry  the 
Princess  Amelia,  sister  of  the  Duke  of  Gloucester.  The 
two  mothers,  the  Queen  of  Prussia  and  the  Princess  of 
Wales,  considered  these  marriage  schemes  in  their  cor- 
respondence; the  children  even  exchanged  letters  and 
little  presents.  It  was  one  of  the  articles  of  Sophia  Do- 
rothea's creed  that  her  daughter  should  be  a  queen;  she 
educated  her  "to  wear  a  crown,"  as  she  often  said. 
She  consoled  herself  for  the  narrowness  of  her  life  by 
thinking  that  she  would  one  day  be  the  mother  of  the 
Queen  of  Great  Britain  and  of  the  King  of  Prussia, 
and  then  she  would  figure  in  the  world. 

In  1725,  when  the  King  of  Prussia  entered  into  an 
alliance  with  Hanover,-  the  moment  seemed  propitious 
to  consecrate  by  a  formal  engagement  the  official  prom- 
ises that  they  had  exchanged.  The  King  of  Prussia, 
on  departing  from  Herrenhausen,  where  he  had  met  his 
father-in-law,  King  George,  left  the  queen  there  to  take 
charge  of  the  negotiations  for  the  double  nuptials.  This 
family  affair  seemed  very  easy  to  regulate,  but  King 
George,  for  various  reasons,  of  which  the  best  was  that 
he  could  not  conclude  so  important  an  act  without  a 
Parliamentary  consultation,  contented  himself  with 
affectionate  assurances  and  verbal  promises;  he  refused 
the  written  ones  demanded  by  the  King  of  Prussia. 
This  first  delay,  at  the  beginning  of  the  official  over- 
tures, was  foreboding.  The  year  after,  Frederick 
William  changed  politics,  and  united  himself  to  the 
Emperor  by   a  treaty.       The   marriage   proposals   were 


FATHER   AND    SON.  153 

not  abandoned  on  account  of  this,  but  the  political  dis- 
agreement rendered  the  completion  of  it  more  difficult. 
George  I.  dying  in  1727,  the  difficulties  increased,  by 
reason  of  the  sentiments  that  the  new  king,  George  II. 
and  his  brother-in-law  of  Prussia  professed  for  each 
other.  At  the  end  of  the  year  the  affair  was  considered 
annulled. 

Nothing  more  simple  than  this  affair,  but  it  soon 
became  very  complicated  through  political  interests  and 
unprecedented  intrigues.  An  alliance  of  a  family  like 
this  one  could  not  fail  to  be  an  event  in  European  poli- 
tics. It  made  Prussia  enter  one  of  the  two  systems 
which  divided  the  continent;  it  placed  her  on  the  side 
of  France  and  England  against  the  Emperor.  The 
Emperor  tried  to  prevent  it;  the  royal  family  and  the 
Court  of  Prussia  became,  in  this  way,  one  of  diplo- 
macy's fields  of  battle. 

The  Emperor  was  represented  near  the  king  by  an 
agent  of  great  ability,  whose  name  we  have  already  met 
more  than  once,  General  Count  Seckendorff.  Frederick 
William  held  him  in  high  esteem  and  warm  friendship, 
during  the  Netherland  campaigns,  in  1709,  and  those  in 
Pomerania,  in  1715.  He  was  glad  of  the  visits  that  the 
Count  often  made  him,  and  happy  to  see  him  estab- 
lished at  the  Court  of  Prussia,  an  event  which  took 
place  in  1726.  Seckendorff  was  not  charged  with  the 
official  representation  of  the  Court  of  Vienna  at  Berlin. 
It  was  under  the  title  of  friend  of  the  King  of  Prussia, 
who  considered  him  as  one  of  his  officers,  and  desired 
to  have  him  always  in  his  company.  Seckendorff  lent 
himself  with  good  grace  to  all  the  king's  wishes,  and  bent 


154  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

himself  to  all  his  customs.  He  was  the  principal  fur- 
nisher of  big  men  to  His  Majesty.  He  ate  and  drank 
with  him  to  such  an  extent  that  at  times  he  was  obliged 
to  retire  from  the  court  in  order  to  take  medicine.  He 
was  an  assiduous  member  of  the  college  die  tabac  ("to- 
bacco college").  Being  a  great  conversationalist,  he 
could  reply  to  the  king  on  all  subjects  that  pleased  him: 
upon  war,  for  he  was  a  good  soldier,  "as  brave  as  his 
sword ;  "  upon  religion,  for,  although  in  the  service  of 
Austria,  he  was  a  devout  Protestant.  He  knew  his 
Bible,  and  was  capable  of  holding  a  discussion  upon 
matters  theological  and  casuistic  with  a  savant  like 
Professor  Francke.  He  had,  besides,  the  air  of  a  per- 
fect man,  "the  appearance  and  the  idle  talk  of  a 
farmer;  which  latter  accomplishment  would  have  been 
despised,  without  the  Blue  Cordon  of  Poland  and  the 
uniform  coat  of  the  big  Grenadiers."  But  the  good 
farmer  was  a  very  crafty  personage.  He  studied  his 
King  of  Prussia,  and  knew  him  as  well  as  anyone.104 
He  learned  the  art  of  letting  the  storms,  so  frequent  at 
this  court,  pass  away,  without  disturbing  himself  about 
the  thunder,  of  calming  the  distrust,  always  on  the  alert, 
of  the  sovereign,  and  amusing  an  impatience  which 
wished  to  be  served  "  in  twenty-four  hours."  He  would 
remain  with  the  king,  when  he  was  engaged  in  some  ne- 
gotiation, from  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning  until  mid- 
night "so  as  not  to  lose  an  opportunity  to  insinuate 
something  useful."  He  surrounded  him  with  intrigues 
and  treacheries.  Nearly  every  one  at  the  Court  of  Prus- 
sia was  for  sale,  or  had  already  been  sold.  He  informed 
himself  of  the  price,  arranged  a  rate  of  prices  for  these 


FATHER    AND    SON.  155 

consciences,  and  gave  his  government  notice  of  the 
highest  sums  paid  by  England  and  France,  so  that  the 
Emperor,  in  offering  more,  could  become  the  last  and 
best  bidder.105 

Seckendorff  made  General  Count  Grumbkow  his  prin- 
cipal ally.  Grumbkow  was  with  the  king  continually, 
as  he  had  "charge  of  all  the  details  of  war."  He 
made  himself  indispensable  to  his  master  by  his  rare 
qualities.  He  was  well  up  in  matters  of  all  kinds, 
military,  diplomatic,  economic,  always  ready  to  make 
concessions,  and  inexhaustible  in  expediency.  He  ex- 
celled in  negotiating,  because  he  had  "an  affable  dis- 
position, politeness,  a  knowledge  of  the  ways  of  the 
world,  and  much  wit,  and  spoke  pertinently  on  every 
subject,"  with  an  open,  gay,  distinguished  physiogno- 
my. He  had  entire  possession  of  his  "Jupiter,"  as  he 
called  the  king,  despising  at  heart  the  grossness  of  his 
person,  sometimes  having  nausea  from  it,  but  submit- 
ting gracefully;  very  clever  at  calming  "Jupiter,"  or 
making  him  boil  over  with  anger.  Taking  all  into 
consideration,  he  was  one  of  the  most  dishonest  men 
that  had  ever  been  in  a  European  cabinet,  "without 
principle,  without  faith,"  sold  to  the  Court  of  Vienna, 
while  waiting  for  France  to  buy  him,  making  them  pay 
a  big  price,  at  the  same  time  clever  enough  to  merit 
his  annual  pension  and  valuable  presents  for  services 
rendered.  He  gave  Seckendorff  the  secretissima  of  fam- 
ily and  State,  gave  him  notice  of  all  their  proceedings, 
at  the  opportune  moment,  and,  as  Seckendorff  said,  he 
had  a  way  of  presenting  things  to  His  Majesty  so  as 
"to  render  them  savory  to  him  —  um  ihm  die  Sache 
schmeck/ufft  zu  machen."m 


156  FREDERICK   THE    GREAT. 

To  have  Grumbkow,  that  was  much,  for  he  was  the 
"  king's  favorite,"  and  possessed  Frederick  William's 
confidence,  but  Seckendorff  would  have  liked  to  assure 
himself  of  all  those  who  were  continually  in  the  mas- 
ter's presence.  He  dared  not  offer  ducats  to  the  mili- 
tary, who  were  incorruptible;  but,  as  the  officers  of  His 
Majesty's  regiment  were  badly  paid,  and  loved  to  drink, 
Seckendorff,  when  he  was  at  Potsdam,  invited  them  to 
dine  with  him  once  a  week.  These  gentlemen  emptied 
forty  or  fifty  bottles  of  wine,  each  one  of  which  cost  one 
florin  forty  kreutzers,  and  "this  seemed  good  to  them." 
For  the  generals  and  colonels,  he  begged  his  court  to 
procure  giants  for  him  so  that  he  could  make  a  present 
of  them  to  Frederick  William;  for  it  was  a  claim  to 
the  king's  favor,  for  the  chief  of  a  regiment  to  present 
him  with  tall  recruits  at  the  inspection  reviews.  Be- 
sides, no  one  was  neglected  by  the  king.  In  the  smok- 
ing apartment,  the  professor  and  court  fool,  Gundling, 
discoursed  upon  public  law,  and,  each  time  he  treated, 
"of  an  imperial  matter,"  and  flattered  the  king's  pro- 
pensity, in  contesting  or  lowering  the  imperial  rights; 
"he  insinuated  false  principles  in  his  master."  Quickly, 
"a  chain  of  gold  of  some  hundred  florins,  to  which  a 
medal  was  attached,"  was  presented  to  this  Gundling; 
the  doorkeeper,  Eversmann,  another  confidant  of  the 
king,  who,  unfortunately,  said  Wilhelmina  "had  none 
but  dishonest  ones,"  became  a  pensioner  of  His  Impe- 
rial Majesty. 

By  these  means,  the  honest  farmer  had  a  good  hold  on 
the  King  of  Prussia.  He  must  never  be  allowed  to  es- 
cape from  our  hands, — ecus  den  Handen  gehen  lassen.    In 


FATHER    AND    SON.  157 

truth,  he  did  not  relax  his  hold  an  instant.  He  watched 
his  every  movement,  noted  his  every  speech,  redoubled 
attention  in  proportion  as  the  wine  loosened  the  king's 
tongue, — da  mehr  Wein  ham  dazu,  and  the  next  day  this 
companion-in-arms,  this  co-religionist,  this  sincere  friend 
of  Frederick  William,  would  send  his  report  to  the 
Emperor  and  Prince  Eugene,  that  is,  if  so  much  drink- 
ing did  not  give  him  too  bad  a  headache:  "As  His 
Majesty,"  he  wrote  one  day  to  Prince  Eugene,  "has 
supped  with  me,  and  we  have  been  very  gay  up  to  mid- 
night, and  have  all  drunk  to  some  excess, — ein  wenig 
excessive, —  I  am  not  in  a  fit  condition  to  write  at  length 
to-day." 

A  short  time  after  his  installation  in  Prussia,  Seck- 
endorff,  among  other  questions,  addressed  the  following 
to  the  Vienna  Cabinet:  "Can  you  expend  something 
to  prevent  the  projected  marriage  of  a  Prussian  princess 
and  the  Duke  of  Gloucester,  and  how  much? — Wie  viel 
angewendet  werden  darff  Supposing  that  another  mar- 
riage could  be  arranged  for  the  Royal  Princess  of  Prus- 
sia, would  you  promise  a  considerable  recompense  ? — 
einen  ansehnlichen  Recompens  to  the  one  who  could  man- 
age this  affair  well?"107  This  is  rightly  called,  putting 
the  question.  Now,  the  Court  of  Vienna  wished,  at 
any  price,  as  we  have  said  before,  to  sever  this  alliance. 
Seckendorff  went  immediately  to  work.  The  Courts  of 
England  and  France,  although  they  had  their  pension- 
ers in  Prussia,  did  not  use  as  powerful  means  of  ac- 
tion as  Austria,  nor  put  forward  as  much  zeal  in 
carrying  out  the  projected  plans  of  marriage  as  the 
Court  of  Vienna  in  thwarting  them;  the  Austrian  then 
had  the  best  of  his  adversaries. 


158  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

THE    KING    AND    THE    PROJECTS    OF    MARRIAGE. 

Now  let  us  follow,  in  the  labyrinth  of  these  intrigues, 
the  king,  the  queen,  and  their  children.  The  king  ar- 
dently desired  the  marriages.  Those  of  his  ministers 
who  were  devoted  to  France  said  again  and  again  that 
< 'the  only  way  to  gain  this  alliance  was  to  induce  the 
King  of  England  to  agree  to  the  double  marriage."  As 
soon  as  Frederick  William  learned  that  France  had  in- 
terested herself  in  it  at  London,  he  returned  thanks,  and 
"  tears  came  to  his  eyes."  One  day  the  Envoy  of  France, 
while  walking  with  him  in  the  garden  of  Wusterhausen, 
spoke  of  the  possibility  of  obtaining  from  King  George 
a  written  promise.  The  king  was  in  a  furious  rage  with 
England;  his  abusive  epithets  were  inexhaustible,  and  he 
pressed  his  companion's  arm  when  he  wished  to  interrupt 
him.  At  the  words,  however,  "written  promise,"  he 
suddenly  became  calm,  and  stopped:  "  Repeat,"  said  he, 
" repeat, "and,  in  order  to  understand  it  better,  he  raised 
his  wig.  At  the  accession  of  his  brother-in-law,  George 
II.,  he  sent  a  negotiator  to  London,  and  asked  France 
to  work  toward  "re-arranging  these  marriages."  Only, 
he  did  the  opposite  from  what  he  should  do,  to  attain 
the  desired  object.  He  left  the  Hanover  alliance  to  go 
over  to  the  Emperor's  side.  He  committed  strange  ec- 
centricities, which  gave  England  cause  to  complain  of 
his  "queer  conduct."  He  did  not  fail  to  put  all  the 
wrong  on  others.  When  he  received  from  England, 
in  November,  1727,  the  response  that  he  should  have 
foreseen;  that  you  must  not  "begin  a  romance  at 
the  end,"  and  that,  before  speaking  of  marriage,  other 
affairs  must  be   regulated,  he  called  his   brother-in-law 


FATHER    AND    SON.  159 

publicly  "a  small  genius  of  the  poorest  kind."  He 
invited  the  English  resident  to  dine,  and  had  read,  at 
table,  a  mocking  account  of  the  Coronation  of  the 
Queen  of  England.  The  resident  pretended  that  he 
did  not  understand  German;  the  king  translated  it  into 
French,  and  handed  him  the  paper:  "  Here,"  he  said, 
"  behold  your  Queen  of  England,  whom  Polichinelle 
leads  by  the  hand  in  the  marionettes,  and  makes  her 
drink  whisky.     What  do  you  say  to  that?"108 

His  conduct  was,  as  usual,  complicated  by  very  simple 
influences.  He  felt  sure  that  these  alliances  were  for 
the  Royal  Family  of  Prussia — royal  so  short  a  time  — 
honorable,  and  even  glorious.  England  was  so  great 
since  she  had  vanquished  Louis  XIV  !  Of  all  the  pow- 
ers that  had  fought  "the  good  fight"  of  reform,  it  was 
the  most  important;  and  then  it  was  so  rich  !  A  prince 
of  Wales,  a  Royal  Princess  of  England,  these  were  very 
desirable  parties  for  a  son  and  daughter  of  "a  guardian 
king ; "  but  this  guardian  was  proud.  He  had  a  high 
idea  of  his  House,  and  faith  in  the  future  that  he  pre- 
pared for  it.  He  thought  that  even  if  the  throne  of 
England  was  the  most  illustrious  in  the  world,  the 
Hanoverians  were  not  worth  any  more  than  he.  This 
brother-in-law,  George  II.,  whose  "haughtiness  he  could 
not  digest,"  he  had  known,  (as  has  been  stated,)  at  the 
time  when  this  great  seignior  was  but  the  grandson  of  a 
Duke  of  Hanover,  recently  promoted  to  the  Electorate. 
His  Wilhelmina  was  also  a  desirable  parti:  "The  woman 
was  well  worth  the  man."  So,  for  these  reasons,  he 
did  not  wish  to  hasten.  He  knew  that  the  French  Min- 
ister was  working  for  these  marriages,  but  he  was  never 


160  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

the  first  to  broach  the  subject  to  him.  He  had  "a 
kind  of  timidity  .  .  .  a  shame,  and  a  repugnance 
toward  making  the  advances."109 

He  had  still  other  reasons  for  being  circumspect;  not- 
withstanding that  he  and  the  King  of  England  declared 
turn  by  turn  that  the  marriages  must  be  simply  treated 
as  family  matters,  both  knew  well  enough  that  politics 
could  not  be  excluded  from  the  question.  And  so  we  find 
Frederick  William  a  prey  to  the  troubles  that  torment 
him  as  soon  as  the  subject  of  an  engagement  is  consid- 
ered. It  was  useless  for  Grumbkow  and  Seckendorff  to 
represent  to  him,  while  he  was  vainly  waiting  for  the 
declaration  of  the  King  of  England,  that  this  monarch 
deceived,  mocked,  only  endeavored  to  "dishonor"  and 
separate  him  from  the  Emperor,  in  order  to  finally 
"ruin  him  out  and  out."  And  then  again,  Frederick 
William  was  not  a  man  to  sacrifice  any  of  the  interests 
of  his  House  in  order  to  marry  his  daughter.  On  the 
contrary,  he  wished  to  gain  something.  He  employed 
his  customary  reasoning :  "What  will  you  offer  me?" 
He  wished  to  have  the  succession  of  Berg  guaranteed  ; 
when  the  Emperor  promised  him  that,  he  acted  haugh- 
tily toward  the  other  party.  "  He  was  punishing  the 
King  of  England  for  his  tardiness,"  said  he  to  the 
French  Minister;  he  would  force  him  to  ask  his  daugh- 
ter's hand  with  urgent  entreaties  and  without  condition: 
"Her  wedding  dowry  would  be  too  much,  since  it 
would  make  me  lose  Berg,"  he  said.  At  last  this  sin- 
gular father,  with  a  daughter  to  marry,  gives  expres- 
sion to  his  real  thought:  "I  will  give  her  but  a  few 
precious  stones,  some  vessels  and  some  silver."     To  be 


FATHER    AND    SON.  161 

brief,  he  placed  Wilhelmina  at  auction,  and  pretended, 
after  having  been  assured  of  the  finest  advantages,  to 
establish  her  without  dot,  or  something  very  much  to 
that  effect.  He  acts  like  a  cunning  peasant,  who  seeks 
a  fine  city  gentleman  for  his  daughter,  but  is  afraid  of 
being  obliged  to  , pay  for  his  satisfaction  in  bags  of 
crown-pieces. 

The  ill  success  of  his  petty  scheme  threw  him  into  a 
state  of  despair.  He  had  the  air  of  a  person  who  did 
not  hold  these  marriages  of  much  account.  If  the 
King  of  England  is  so  hard  to  please,  we  "will  find 
another  husband"  for  Wilhelmina:  "All  things  consid- 
ered, I  am  indifferent  as  to  whether  or  not  she  will  be 
called  queen.  This  title  will  add  nothing  to  the  lustre 
and  power  of  my  House."  Then,  as  one  must  always 
look  for  the  most  unexpected  actions  in  him,  he  con- 
fided to  the  Minister  of  France  the  means  he  will  em- 
ploy "to  preserve,  the  chastity  of  the  princess."  The 
minister  dared  not  repeat  his  words  in  an  official  letter: 
he  sent  them  in  a  note.  In  my  turn,  I  dare  not  repeat 
them.110 

This  indifference  of  the  King  of  Prussia  was  entirely 
an  affectation.  He  suffered  from  England's  scorn. 
Tears  would  come  to  his  eyes  when  he  saw  his 
daughter.  "After  this  she  will  be  considered  no  bet- 
ter than  a  prostitute,"111  he  said. 

This  affair  henceforth  is  the  base  of  all  the  king's 
bad  humor.  Naturally,  he  placed  all  the  burden  of  it 
upon  his  family.  He  flew  into  a  rage  at  the  queen,  whom 
he  inflicted  with  the  humiliation  of  a  public  broil  of 
two  weeks'  duration.     He  refused  to  receive  her,  or  even 


1G2  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

to  read  the  letters  she  sent  from  Berlin  to  Potsdam, 
where  he  was  staying.  When  he  returned  to  Berlin  he 
did  not  wish  to  see  her,  dined  without  the  queen,  and 
this  "coldness  did  not  cease  until  the  last  few  moments 
of  his  stay  there."  These  quarters  of  an  hour  recon- 
ciliations led  only  to  truces.  The  misunderstandings 
recommenced,  during  which  he  would  barricade  the 
doors  of  his  apartments.  Scenes  would  occur,  when  he 
would  menace  the  queen  with  having  her  banished  to 
Spandau,  and  propose  husbands  for  her  daughter,  that  to 
name  alone,  would  throw  her  into  violent  spells  of  an- 
ger. He  divided  equally  his  reproaches  among  his  two 
eldest  children  and  his  wife:  "When  thou  and  thy 
English  family  come  to  need  my  doctor,"  said  he  to  the 
queen  one  day,  as  she  was  trying  to  prevent  him  from 
sending  his  physician  to  the  sick  Czarina,  "I  will  not 
lend  him  to  thee."112  He  never  raised  his  hand  against 
her,  but  he  began  to  mistreat  his  son  in  other  ways  than 
words.  The  resentment  of  his  mortifications,  added  to 
to  the  cause  of  discontent  that  Frederick  gave  him, 
explains  these  spells  of  rage  that  seized  the  King  of 
Prussia. 

THE    PARTY    OF    THE    CRCfWN    PRINCE. 

I  do  not  wTish  the  reader  to  think  that  I  have  the 
intention  of  excusing  Frederick  William's  conduct.  I 
am  trying  only  to  find  the  exact  state  of  his  mind  at 
the  time  he  began  to  practice  his  brutalities.  In  these 
same  troubled  waters,  we  must  now  follow  the  queen 
and  her  two  elder  children.  All  three  were  ardently 
engaged    in  the  projects  of  marriage.     They  assuredly 


FATHER    AND    SON.  163 

had  the  right  to  desire  them,  and  defend  themselves 
against  the  Court  of  Vienna,  against  Grumbkow  and 
Seckendorff,  and  of  hating  and  displeasing  these  per- 
sonages, whom  Wilhelmina  accused  of  having  been 
"both  at  the  same  game  in  their  youth,"  whence 
they  made  their  fortune.  The  two  allies  incessantly 
besieged  the  king,  and  circumvented  him;  one  can  un- 
derstand, then,  the  reason  of  the  queen's  placing  herself 
with  the  opposite  faction,  and  showering  her  favors 
upon  Du  Bourgay,  the  English  Minister,  and  Rotten- 
burg,  the  French  Minister,  but  it  was  dangerous  ground ; 
the  aifair  being  political,  care  had  to  be  taken  not  to 
usurp  the  rights  of  Royal  Majesty  and  glide  into  treason. 

Now  the  queen,  at  the  same  time  that  she  begged,  sup- 
plicated and  intrigued  at  London,  placed  herself  on  a  ba- 
sis of  intimacy  with  Rottenburg.  Not  only  did  she  relate 
to  him  a  part  of  her  trials,  and  saw  in  the  kindness  of 
the  King  of  France  alone  a  resource  for  her  safety,  but 
she  consulted  him  as  to  her  conduct  toward  Grumbkow; 
she  kept  him  posted  about  everything  that  happened. 
She  arranged  with  him  to  prevent  an  Imperialist  from  en- 
tering into  the  Ministry,  and  suggested  means  for  carry- 
ing on  "  a  secret  correspondence."  The  queen  showed 
him  the  letters  that  she  was  sending  to  England,  and 
gave  them  to  him  to  deliver,  "as  a  means  of  security." 
When  he  was  leaving  the  court,  she  charged  him  with 
a  mission  for  the  King  of  England,  who  was  at  Han- 
over. To  be  brief,  she  made  use  of  a  foreign  political 
agent,  to  practice  a  policy  contrary  to  that  of  her  hus- 
band.113 

Sophia  Dorothea  did  not  stop  there.    She  accustomed 


164  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

herself  to  the  idea  that  the  king  would  not  live  a  long 
time,  and  made  it  her  duty  to  think  of  the  future.  She 
treated  with  Rottenburg  upon  this  delicate  subject. 
One  day  she  explained  to  him  "  the  measures  that 
seemed  good  for  her  to  take,  should  the  king  die  a 
lunatic."  The  French  Minister  responded  that  this  was 
a  "useless  and  dangerous  conversation,"  and  that  an 
indiscretion  would  expose  Her  Majesty  to  most  severe 
treatment,  but,  at  the  sama  time,  he  gave  his  advice  : 
"The  most  reasonable  conduct,  for  the  present,  is  to 
inspire  the  Crown  Prince  with  good  sentiments,  and 
have  him  show  to  everyone  as  much  kindness,  as  his 
father  does  harshness,  and,  above  all,  to  dissimulate 
with  friends  of  the  Imperial  party,  for  fear  that  they 
may  suggest  to  the  king,  with  some  appearance  of 
reason,  that  there  is  a  party  forming  against  him  for 
the  Crown  Prince."114 

The  word  was  pronounced ;  the  party  of  the  Crown 
Prince.  Rottenburg  knew  then  that  the  Crown  Prince 
was  ready  to  enter  into  his  views,  and  even  to  antici- 
pate them.  Frederick  actually  sought  Rottenburg.  A 
month  before  this  interview  with  the  queen,  this  minis- 
ter wrote  as  follows  to  his  court:  "  The  Crown  Prince 
overwhelms  me  with  attentions,  and,  without  any  ad- 
vances on  my  side,  he  told  me,  some  days  ago,  that 
he  knew  how  well  I  had  taken  the  part  of  his  grand- 
father, and  that  he  wished  me  to  render  an  exact  ac- 
count of  all  the  king,  his  father,  said. "  This  first  over- 
ture, so  to  the  point,  appears  to  have  surprised  the 
diplomat.  He  knew  well  that  General  Fink,  who  was 
a    relative,    gave     serviceable    "insinuations"    to    the 


FATHER    AND    SON.  165 

prince,  but  he  held  himself  aloof:  "  I  took  care  not  to 
divulge  my  opinions  in  any  way,"  said  he,  "notwith- 
standing this  young  prince's  premature  and  dissimulat- 
ing ways."115  Let  us  note, '  in  passing,  that  this 
youthful  politician  was  but  fourteen  years  old. 

Frederick  did  not  allow  himself  to  be  rebuffed.  He 
insisted;  every  day  he  asked  Rottenburg  "if  he  had  no 
consoling  news  to  give  him  for  the  queen."  Just  at  this 
time  the  prince  was  solicited  by  the  Imperialists,  but 
he  was  not  won  over  by  them,  and  kept  Rottenburg 
informed  of  all  the  propositions  made  to  him  from  that 
side.  Then  the  minister  commenced  to  take  part  in 
the  game.  He  also  thought  that  the  King  of  Prussia 
had  not  long  to  live.  So  he  decided  to  respond  to  the 
advances  of  the  prince,  to  assure  himself  of  all  the 
persons  surrounding  him,  and  to  commence  to  form  a 
party.  "The  king,"  said  he,  "is  universally  hated  by 
all  classes  in  his  kingdom.  In  order  to  disarm  the 
father,  it  will  be  necessary  to  form  a  party  for  the 
Crown  Prince,  and  to  attach  to  his  side  a  number  of 
officers.  .  .  I  believe  that  this  scheme  would  suc- 
ceed. At  any  rate,  this  would  be  rearing  the  young 
prince  in  views  favorable  to  France."  Frederick  be- 
came more  and  more  marked  in  his  attentions;  he  would 
take  him  by  the  hand,  and  beg  him  to  continue  his  care 
for  the  good  cause;  he  was  not  then  in  a  condition  to 
show  his  gratitude,  but  it  was  profoundly  engraven 
upon  his  heart.  What  gave  the  most  confidence  to  Rot- 
tenburg was,  "that  the  prince  bitterly  hated  the  king, 
his  father."116 

Thus  a  kind  of  counter  plot  was  organized.     The  con- 


166  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

spirators  were  very  prudent.  Frederick  having  offered 
his  portrait  to  Rottenburg,  the  latter  suggested  to  him 
"  the  strictest  reserve."  "I  pretend  never  to  speak  to 
the  prince,"  said  the  minister,  "but  I  have  several 
sure,  faithful  ways  of  making  known  to  him  what  I 
desire  and  of  receiving  his  messages."  He  put  Freder- 
ick "in  close  intercourse"  with  Cnyphausen,  one  of 
the  ministers  pensioned  by  France.  He  soon  believed 
himself  sure  of  the  Crown  Prince,  "not  only  for  the 
hope  of  the  future,  but  even  to  make  use  of  him  now, 
in  order  to  flatter  our  friends  and  intimidate  our  ene- 
mies." In  fact,  Frederick  compromised  himself  more 
and  more.  This  led  to  great  imprudence,  and  here  is 
the  gravest  one,  testified  by  Rottenburg:  "I  had  a  very 
interesting  conversation  with  the  Crown  Prince.  The 
next  day  he  wrote  me  a  letter.  I  believed  it  my  duty 
not  to  answer  it,  and  I  exhorted  him  to  have  patience. 
As  all  this  is  a  question  upon  which  one  may  not  treat 
to-day,  I  Avill  defer  it  for  a  verbal  account."117 

Unfortunately,  we  know  nothing  of  this  verbal  account. 
The  departure  of  Rottenburg,  who  had  obtained  per- 
mission to  withdraw  from  the  court,  and  was  soon  to  be 
sent  into  Spain,  interrupted  these  revelations;  but  the 
matter  is  not  lacking  in  conjecture.  At  this  time,  Rot- 
tenburg prophesied  an  approaching  revolution,  and 
announced  that  everything  "was  preparing  for  it."  He 
repeated  this  prediction  in  nearly  every  one  of  his  letters, 
and  wrote  forcibly  of  the  discontentment  of  all  classes, 
the  military,  the  civilians,  and  the  clergy.  As  for  the 
"clergy,  they  murmur  more  than  any  of  them."  There 
was  no  longer  a  question  of  the  king's  death;  it  was  of 


FATHER   AND    SON.  167 

an  act  of  violence.  What  act?  A  revolution,  properly 
speaking,  coming  from  the  street  or  the  army,  as  it  hap- 
pened in  our  century,  was  not  probable.  I  dare  not  go 
into  the  extent  of  my  thought,  but  it  seems  to  me, 
that  Rottenburg  had  the  idea  that  in  this  strange  court, 
against  this  prince  who  governed  Russian  fashion,  a 
revolution  would  find  its  complicity  in  high  places.  He 
believed  and  said  that  anything  might  happen.  "  The 
mind  of  man  can  hardly  divine  how  all  this  will  end." 
He  undoubtedly  foresaw,  at  least,  a  confinement  of 
the  king,  after  being  declared  insane.  However,  it  is 
permissible  to  suppose,  that  between  this  foreign  min- 
ister and  this  prince,  "who  so  bitterly  hated  his 
father,"  there  were  strange  understandings  in  these  in- 
terviews which  could  not  be  confided  to  paper. 

But  let  us  suppose  nothing:  we  have  proofs  which 
are  sufficient.  The  young  prince  was  truly  ' « premature. " 
Rottenburg  could  not  help  admiring  how  perfectly  he 
played  his  role.  To  the  Imperialists  who  tried  to  draw 
him  over  to  their  side,  and  who  promised  to  procure 
"concessions"  from  his  father,  he  answered,  like  a 
model  son,  "that  he  hoped,  in  observing  good  conduct, 
that  the  king  would  have  some  consideration  for  him, 
and  that  if  he  failed  in  his  duties,  he  was  not  worthy 
of  interest  from  any  one."  Even  with  his  friends,  who 
knew  well  the  state  of  affairs,  he  used  veiled  expres- 
sions. He  spoke,  not  of  his  party,  but  "the  party  of 
his  grandfather,"  King  George.  If  he  thanked  Rot- 
tenburg, it  was  for  the  care  that  he  took  "for  the  pre- 
servation of  the  estates  of  the  king,  my  father."  He 
found  this  a  pleasing  tone,  this  diplomatic  lying,  as  it 


168  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

is  called,  knowing  well  that  he  deceived  no  one.  How 
far,  then,  did  his  secret  thoughts  go?  Was  he  already 
desiring  the  death  of  his  father?  At  all  events,  he  en- 
tertained, inwardly,  the  idea  of  this  death.  He  did  not 
see  in  what  form  the  future  would  present  itself,  but  he 
discounted  and  burdened  it  wTith  the  hypothesis  of  this 
gratitude,  "that  he  regretted  not  being  able  to  show 
then."  The  impatience  that  Rottenburg  calmed  by  his 
exhortations  was  that  of  wishing  to  reign.118 

Already  Frederick  was  turning  a  smiling  face  (the 
king  will  reproach  him  soon  for  it)  to  all  those  his 
father  mistreated.  This  unselfishness,  this  liberality, 
this  charity  that  Seckendorif  attributed119  to  him,  the 
future  showed  was  not  in  his  nature.  When  he  distrib- 
uted to  the  poor  of  Strassfurt  the  city's  present,  caution- 
ing his  tutors  not  to  breathe  a  word  of  it  to  the  king ; 
when  he  promised  to  return,  on  his  accession,  to  the 
poor  of  Magdeburg  the  money  that  the  king  forced  him 
to  accept;  all  this  generosity  was  very  suspicious.  "The 
prince,"  said  Rottenburg,  "must  show  as  much  kind- 
ness as  the  king,  his  father,  harshness."  Frederick  fol- 
lowed this  advice:  he  worked  to  form  "  the  party  of  the 
Crown  Prince."  Like  his  mother,  he  was  engaged  in  for- 
eign intercourse.  He  was  not  yet  writing  letters  to  Lon- 
don or  to  Versailles,  but  he  commended  himself  to  the 
good  auspices  of  France.  At  Versailles  they  regarded 
him  as  a  child  of  the  House,  and  wished  to  contribute 
to  his  education:  "The  main  point,"  wrote  they  to  Rot- 
tenburg, "is  to  instruct  this  young  prince  in  the  true 
principle  that  whatever  part  princes  take,  it  is  only 
firmness  in  their  engagements  that  can  give  them  consid- 


FATHER   AND    SON.  169 

eration  and  procure  them  strong  advantages."  Admira- 
ble counsel,  and  well  placed  !  The  King  of  France  him- 
self was  interested.  He  wrote  to  Rottenburg :  "What 
you  have  remarked  in  the  Crown  Prince  seems  to  give 
great  hope  for  his  right  spirit  and  discernment.  Profit 
by  the  relations  you  have  with  those  who  surround  him, 
present  to  him  my  acquiescence  in  his  sentiments  and 
the  assurances  of  my  interest  in  his  welfare."120 

Frederick  William  could  not  ignore  all  these  intrigues; 
the  queen  was  a  bad  conspirator,  and  even  the  prince 
did  not  know  how  to  hide  his  schemes.  The  adverse 
coterie,  besides,  watched  the  queen's  maneuvers.121 
One  day  she  appealed  to  the  king,  and  informed  him 
of  the  existence  of  anonymous  letters.  Grumbkow  held 
three,  in  which  it  was  stated  in  plain  terms  "that  the 
queen  was  untrue  to  her  husband,  and  that  there  was 
talk  of  doing  away  with  him,  shutting  him  up,  and 
placing  the  Crown  Prince  on  the  throne."  The  king 
showed  these  letters  to  the  queen,  and  she  had  some 
difficulty  in  clearing  herself.  He  sent  them  imme- 
diately to  his  cabinet,  and  the  affair  went  no  farther ; 
but  he  conceived,  it  was  said,  "a  great  fear  of  these 
letters,  particularly  of  those  that  referred  to  the  Crown 
Prince."  He  had  the  barbarous  idea  of  making  his  son 
drunk,  so  as  to  find  out  if  they  talked  state  affairs  to 
him;  the  prince  held  his  own  well,  said  only  what  was 
desired,  and  did  not  compromise  anyone.  If  Frederick 
William  did  not  know  all  that  was  going  on,  he  still 
had  his  suspicions,  but  let  us  admit  that  he  suspected 
nothing :  the  conclusion  from  the  history  of  these  weak 
conspiracies  is  that  the  Crown  Prince, — not  to  offend 


170  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

his  future  greatness, —  roundly  deserved  a  box   on  the 
ears  now  and  then. 

FAREWELL  TO  THE  PRECEPTOR FORBIDDEN  PLEASURES. 

In  the  year  1727,  when  the  conflict  between  father  and 
son  had  become  bitter,  the  Crown  Prince  was  entering 
a  new  period  of  his  existence.  In  April  of  that  year 
he  had  received  confirmation;  his  studies,  as  a  pupil, 
had  been  officially  ended,  and  the  tutor  had  retired. 

4 'My  dear  Duhan,"122  wrote  Frederick,  "I  promise 
that  when  I  have  my  own  money  at  hand,  I  will  give 
you  annually  twenty-four  hundred  crowns,  and  that  I 
will  love  you  more  than  ever,  if  that  be  possible." 

One  would  wish  this  note  to  be  not  only  of  another 
orthography,  but  that  the  crowns  should  figure  at  the 
end  as  a  delicate  allusion.  But  Duhan  was  a  small  per- 
sonage, "a  worthy  man,"  as  Wilhelmina  said,  and  Fred- 
erick did  not  trouble  himself  to  be  careful  about  the 
style.  He,  however,  always  retained  for  his  master  a 
sincere  affection  and  gratitude. 

The  king  permitted  the  other  two  preceptors  to  re- 
main near  the  prince,  and  replaced  Duhan  by  Major 
Senning,  who  was  charged  with  the  prince's  military 
education.  He  must  have  taken  pleasure  in  dismissing 
Duhan,  and  have  rejoiced  in  the  arrival  of  the  hour  for 
Frederick's  practical  education,  if  he  had  not  already 
reached  that  point,  where  no  joy  could  come  from  a 
child  that  he  held  in  such  aversion.  The  king  never 
tried  to  lead  his  son  back  by  gentleness  and  persua- 
sion, through  calm,  open-hearted  explanations.  He 
watched  him  secretly,  had  his  actions  spied  by  domes- 


FATHER   AND    SON.  171 

tics,  and  even  by  friends.  In  December,  1727,  he 
called  Lieutenant  Borcke  and  three  other  officers  before 
him  to  say,  in  presence  of  the  prince,  that  "he  was  at 
a  perilous  age,  and  subject  to  bad  inclinations;"  he 
had  chosen  these  four  men  to  guard  over  his  conduct, 
"and  he  rendered  them  responsible,  with  their  heads, 
for  the  least  excess  or  irregularity  from  which  they  did 
not  turn  the  prince"  or  give  notice  of  it  to  the  king.123 
One  of  them  must  always  accompany  Frederick.  It  is 
impossible  to  imagine  a  more  awkward  or  humiliating 
proceeding. 

Through  this  excess  of  surveillance,  the  king  incited 
his  son  to  hide  from  him  all  that  he  could  of  his 
life.  The  prince  covered  up  his  good  as  well  as  bad 
actions.  He  began  by  collecting  secretly  a  library  of 
more  than  three  thousand  volumes.  The  catalogue  com- 
prised the  great  English  and  French  periodicals  (fifty- 
two  volumes  of  the  Journal  cles  Savants)\  an  English 
Encyclopedia:  bibliographies;  manuals;  ana;  dictionaries 
and  grammars  of  the  French,  Italian  and  Spanish  lan- 
guages; a  dictionary  of  French  rhymes;  treatises  on 
poetry,  style  and  conversation;  the  great  writers  of  an- 
tiquity in  their  Italian  and  English  translations,  but 
particularly  in  the  French;  the  great  French  writers, 
from  the  time  of  Rabelais;  all  that  had  been  published 
of  Voltaire's  works,  the  great  Italian  writers ;  all  the 
universal  histories  of  any  value,  abridged  Greek  histo- 
ries, many  books  on  Roman  history,  history  of  all  the 
countries  of  Europe,  particularly  that  of  France;  only 
a  few  books,  French  or  translated  into  French,  on  the 
history  of  Germany,  and  a  single  little  abridged  history 


172  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

in  French,  of  Brandenburg ;  a  great  quantity  of  Me- 
moirs in  French;  maps  historical,  geographical,  ethno- 
graphical; stories  of  travels,  most  of  them  in  France; 
books  upon  the  fine  arts  and  music,  majority  French; 
books  of  political  literature,  Machiavelli,  The  Utopia 
of  Sir  Thomas  More,  The  Republic  of  Bodin,  The  Eter- 
nal Peace  of  the  Abbe  of  Saint-Pierre;  books  on  mili- 
tary literature;  histories  on  religion  and  on  Christian 
Churches,  political  and  apologetic  books,  all  the  writ- 
ings of  Madame  Guyon;  histories  of  philosophy  and 
treatises  on  the  morals  of  pagans  and  Christians;  the 
works  of  Descartes,  Bayle,  and  Locke.124 

As  precocious  as  Frederick  was,  he  would  not  have 
been  able,  at  the  age  of  fifteen,  to  plan  such  a  library. 
He  was  advised  by  Duhan,  who  made  the  purchases, 
and  in  this  way  aided  him  to  follow  his  intellectual  ed- 
ucation. The  prince  made,  in  his  own  handwriting,  the 
first  catalogue  of  his  library,  in  1727.  He  copied  titles 
of  books  that  treated  of  all  classes  of  human  knowl- 
edge. He  was  prepared  to  comprehend  everything; 
before  his  youthful  mind  was  displayed  a  horizon  so 
vast  that  Germany  occupied  a  very  small  place  there, 
and  Brandenburg  was  hardly  visible.  These  works  upon 
mathematics  and  physics,  Descartes,  Bayle,  Locke,  Vol- 
taire, a  dictionary  of  French  rhymes,  were  in  truth 
Frederick  the  Great's  library.  He  had  hidden  this 
treasure  in  a  rented  house  near  the  castle;  the  books 
were  enclosed  in  closets,  and  Duhan  kept  the  keys. 
Undoubtedly,  he  would  hurry  there  every  quarter  of  an 
hour  he  could  steal  from  his  duties  and  burdens  which 
filled  up  his  days.     He  must  have  read  here  and  there, 


FATHER    AND    SON.  173 

haphazard,  (through  bribery,)  in  great  haste,  with  a 
restless  greediness.  If  he  had  been  surprised  by  his 
father,  what  a  scene  !  The  king  detested  books  to  such 
an  extent  that  he  suppressed  the  fund  for  the  Royal  Li- 
brary, and  gave  to  a  general  an  income  of  one  thousand 
thalers  out  of  the  fund  to  be  expended  in  the  purchase 
of  books,  which  was  exactly  one  thousand  thalers. 

In  this  way  was  perpetuated  the  resistance  of  a  young 
mind  thirsting  for  intellectual  pleasure,  from  the  tyran- 
ny of  Frederick  William;  but  the  prince  was  going 
to  give  his  father  sorrow  of  another  kind.  In  the  be- 
ginning of  the  year  1728  the  king  prepared  to  depart 
for  Dresden,  where  his  visit  was  expected.  At  first,  he 
decided  that  his  son  should  not  follow  him.  Frederick, 
who  had  such  a  great  desire  to  see  other  countries,  other 
customs,  and,  no  doubt,  also  to  figure  as  a  prince  in  a 
foreign  place,  was  so  chagrined  on  learning  that  he  was 
not  to  be  of  the  party  that  his  sister,  Wilhelmina, 
feared  he  would  fall  sick.  She  had,  as  we  know,  a  mind 
full  of  resources.  She  schemed  so  as  to  make  Suhm, 
the  Minister  of  Saxony,  ask  King  Augustus  to  urgently 
request  a  visit  from  the  prince.  The  King  of  Poland 
insisted  to  such  a  point  that  the  King  of  Prussia  called 
his  son  to  Dresden.  He  wished  even  that  the  young 
man  should  make  his  appearance  well-dressed,  and  or- 
dered him  to  have  made  *  <  a  coat  with  gold  trimmings, 
and  six  uniforms  for  his  suite."125  Now  we  behold  both 
of  them  at  the  most  brilliant  court  in  Germany;  this 
was  a  new  occasion  for  the  exchange  of  their  antipathies. 
Fritz  found  himself  perfectly  at  ease  in  this  grand  at- 
mosphere and  this  magnificence,    which    contrasted    so 


174  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

strongly  with  the  sorry  mien  of  the  Court  of  Berlin. 
He  was  treated  as  a  Crown  Prince;  another  comparison. 

He  knew  how  to  please,  to  charm,  "to  make  himself 
beloved  by  these  people  of  Saxony.  .  .  His  tastes 
seemed  to  blend  more  readily  with  their  manner  of  liv- 
ing than  those  of  the  king,  his  father."  Frederick 
William  did  what  he  could  to  be  agreeable,  but  he  had 
some  mishaps,  among  others  he  burst  his  trousers  at  a 
ball,  where  "the  vivacity  of  the  dance  made  him  lose 
the  power  of  reflection."  As  he  had  brought  with  him 
only  one  pair  of  trousers  of  ceremony,  he  had  to  send 
for  another,  by  special  courier  to  Berlin.  He  saw  that 
his  son  presented  a  better  appearance  to  the  world  than 
he  did.  He  refused  him  occasions  to  come  forward, 
and  forced  him,  for  example,  to  decline  an  invitation 
to  dine  with  the  French  Minister.  But  he  could  not 
shut  him  up  entirely.  Frederick  went  to  dine  with  the 
Minister  of  State,  Manteufel,  who  had  a  fine,  cultivated 
mind.  He  philosophized  there  at  his  ease  ;  two  days 
after,  writing  to  his  sister,  he  signed  his  name:  Freder- 
ick the  Philosopher.  Music  was  highly  honored  at  the 
Dresden  Court;  the  prince  heard  an  opera  there,  for  the 
first  time,  and,  no  doubt,  with  great  delight.  To  be 
brief,  the  prince  enjoyed  everything  so  much  that  the 
king  took  revenge  by  mortifying  him. 126 

Necessarily,  on  returning  to  Berlin,  the  prince  be- 
came more  melancholy  than  ever.  He  could  be  seen 
growing  thinner  and  thinner;  he  fell  sick  of  a  kind  of 
slow  fever,  and  was  threatened  with  consumption  or 
some  pulmonary  trouble,  said  the  physician,— love- 
sick,   wrote     Wilhelmina,     for     "he     had   acquired   a 


FATHER    AND    SON.  175 

taste  for  debauchery,  at  Dresden,  and  the  restraint 
in  which  he  was  kept  prevented  his  excesses  in  this 
direction."  The  king  believed  him  in  danger,  and 
"the  voice  of  nature"  made  itself  heard,  and  he 
grieved  about  him.  "When  children  are  in  good 
health,"  he  wrote  to  Prince  Anhalt,  "  one  does  not  know 
that  one  loves  them."  He  listened  with  patience  to  the 
queen,  who  reproached  him  with  the  illness  of  his  son, 
and  declared  to  him  "that  she  could  bear  very  well  the 
sorrows  that  would  fall  upon  her  alone,  but  that  for 
her  son,  she  would  not  permit  them  to  abuse  his  strength 
in  his  condition."  He  even  had  remorse  for  past  vigor- 
ous measures,  which  he  tried  to  make  the  prince  forget 
by  kind  attention.  This  was  one  of  the  rare  short 
moments,  when  the  father  was  himself. 

One  regrets  to  think  that,  even  in  those  days  of 
reconciliation,  everybody  was  not  sincere.  At  least 
Wilhelmina  relates  that  her  mother,  brother,  and  the 
physician,  "who  was  disposed  to  be  on  their  side,"  ex- 
aggerated the  illness,  so  as  to  procure  the  prince  some 
repose.  She  did  not  believe  that  it  was  the  return  of 
paternal  tenderness  that  cured  her  brother.  The  King 
of  Poland  came  in  the  month  of  May  to  return  the  visit 
paid  to  him  six  months  before.  Frederick  did  not  ap- 
pear immediately  at  the  fetes.  He  had  decided  —  for 
his  philosophy  did  not  go  so  far  as  to  despise  prece- 
dency—  not  to  sit  "at  the  table  of  ceremony  at  Berlin, 
for  he  did  not  wish  to  cede  his  place  to  the  Electoral- 
prince  of  Saxony,  a  thing  his  father  would  not  fail  to 
exact  from  him;"  but  he  took  good  care  not  to  lose  th« 
opportunity  of  seeing  again  the  Dresden  guests;  he  went 
to  the  court. 


176  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

The  journey  of  the  king  through  the  province  of 
Prussia  was  another  happy  event,  in  the  year  1728. 
He  did  not  take  Frederick  with  him.  The  prince  had 
a  relapse,  and  pretended  that  his  malady  was  worse 
than  it  really  was,  to  evade  the  ennui  of  the  paternal 
companionship.  The  king,  before  leaving,  regulated 
by  an  instruction  to  Kalkstein  the  regime  of  the  prince 
during  his  absence.  He  ordered  that  Frederick  should 
receive  every  morning  a  two-hours'  lesson  upon  mili- 
tary tactics,  given  by  Major  Senning ;  that  he  should 
dine  exactly  at  noon.  Kalkstein,  Senning  and  the 
Maitre  de  Cuisine  Holwedel  should  dine  with  him,  but 
he  had  the  privilege  of  inviting  six  others.  Thirty 
minutes  after  meals,  fencing  for  an  hour;  then,  until 
four  o'clock,  lessons  from  Senning.  The  prince,  "  after 
four  o'clock,  might  divert  himself  in  any  way  he  liked, 
provided  he  did  nothing  contrary  to  the  commandment 
of  God  and  His  Majesty.  He  could  follow  the  various 
pleasures  of  the  hunt,  but  Colonel  Kalkstein  must  be 
always  with  him."  He  was  allowed  to  dine  and  sup 
out,  but  never  to  sleep  away  from  his  own  apartments. 
After  the  retreat  was  sounded,  he  must  retire  immedi- 
ately. It  is  always  the  same  tone  of  command,  the 
same  strict  method  of  ruling  everything.127  To  do 
nothing  contrary  to  the  commands  of  His  Majesty! 
But,  even  this  was  a  recreation  for  Frederick. 

There  was  at  the  court,  during  the  absence  of  the 
king,  a  perfect  furore  of  music.  The  King  of  Poland 
sent,  upon  the  queen's  request,  "the  most  clever  of  his 
virtuosos,  such  as  the  famous  Weiss,  whose  playing  up- 
on the  lute  has  never  been  excelled ;  Bufardin,  renowned 


FATHER    AND    SON.  177 

for  his  fine  execution  upon  the  German  flute,  and  Quantz, 
master  of  the  same  instrument,  a  great  composer,  whose 
taste  and  exquisite  art  found  means  of  training  his  flute 
to  be  equal  to  the  sweetest  voice. " 128  The  queen  then 
gave  concerts  that  must  have  been  listened  to  by  the 
prince  with  ecstatic  delight.  He  passionately  loved 
music,  and  played  on  the  harpsichord,  violin  and  flute; 
the  latter,  however,  was  his  favorite  instrument.  He, 
perhaps,  had  chosen  the  flute  from  the  ideas  he  received 
from  Telemachus,  where  Fenelon  describes  the  pupil  of 
Minerva  charming  with  the  sounds  of  this  instrument 
his  new-born  loves.  To  play  the  flute  and  read  were 
Frederick's  real  pleasures.  He  took  but  little  advan- 
tage of  the  permission  given  to  hunt,  "  to  run  down  an 
animal ; "  the  chase,  the  favorite  pastime  of  his  father, 
was  for  him  but  a  violent,  stupid  exercise.  He  went 
only  when  ordered  to  do  so,  and,  every  opportunity  he 
could  find,  would  steal  behind  a  tree  and  draw  out  his 
flute.  He  unquestionably  expressed  upon  this  pastoral 
instrument,  better  than  through  the  verses  he  is  soon 
going  to  write  the  vague,  poetic  sentiment  that  cher- 
ished his   youthful  fancy. 

The  taste  that  he  and  his  sister  alike  had  for  music 
gave  to  their  friendship  a  charming  grace.  They  played 
duets :  Wilhelmina  called  her  lute  Principe,  and  Fritz 
called  his  flute  Princip>essa. 

THE    AUTUMN    OF    1728    AT    WUSTERHAUSEN, 

"We  are  infinitely  entertained.  We  pass  tranquil 
days  .  .  ."  said  Wilhelmina,  speaking  of  the  absence 
of  her  father:  but  their  father  returned,  and  they  had 


178  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

to  fall  "from  paradise  into  purgatory."  The  sojourn 
at  Wusterhausen,  in  the  autumn  of  1728,  with  these 
violent  scenes,  was  a  mortal  agony.  Frederick  tried  to 
evade  it;  he  wished,  as  a  matter  of  course,  to  travel, 
to  see  other  countries,  and  satisfy  his  lively  curiosity; 
but  it  was  principally  because  he  wanted  to  go  away. 
He  did  not  dare  ask  his  father's  permission  himself. 
Kalkstein  slipped  this  request  into  a  conversation  he 
had  with  the  king,  who  responded  with  a  sharp  refusal; 
he  had  to  remain  ;  never  had  Wusterhausen  appeared 
more  horrible  to  Frederick  and  Wilhelmina. 

The  princess  has  drawn,  with  enraged  maliciousness, 
the  caricature  of  this  place  of  abode,  so  dear  to  Fred- 
erick William,  "  that  enchanted  castle  .  .  .  which 
consisted  only  of  a  mass  of  lodgings,  whose  beauty  was 
heightened  by  an  antique  tower  that  contained  a  spiral 
wooden  staircase.  The  main  building  was  surrounded 
by  a  terrace,  around  which  a  ditch  was  built,  whose 
black,  sluggish  water  resembled  that  of  the  Styx,  and 
spread  abroad  a  frightful  odor,  enough  to  produce  suf- 
focation. Three  bridges,  placed  on  three  different  sides 
of  the  house,  communicated  with  the  court,  garden, 
and  a  windmill  opposite.  This  court  was  formed  on  two 
sides  by  two  wings,  where  the  gentlemen  of  the  king's 
suite  were  lodged.  It  was  enclosed  by  a  palisade,  at 
the  entrance  of  which  were  fastened  two  white  eagles, 
two  black  eagles,  and  two  bears,  in  form  of  sentinels, 
and,  by  the  way,  very  wicked  animals  they  were,  at- 
tacking everybody."129 

The  house,  it  is  true,  had  no  pretensions  to  being  a 
palace,  and  that  is  the  reason  it  pleased  Frederick  Wil- 


FATHER    AND    SON.  179 

liam.  It  was  the  mansion,  of  a  country  squire:  the 
tower  recalled  its  feudal  origin.  The  spiral  wooden 
staircase  is  there,  and  the  plan  of  the  interior  has  not 
been  changed  :  on  the  ground-floor,  some  rooms  of  mod- 
est grandeur  served  as  dining-hall  and  bed-chambers  for 
the  king  and  queen.  On  the  first  floor  the  tabagie  or 
"smoking-room"  occupied  the  best  and  largest  place: 
the  rest  was  divided  up  into  very  small  apartments.  The 
deep-recessed,  narrow  windows  but  imperfectly  lighted 
this  house,  which  must  have  been  very  dark  during  the 
days  of  autumn  and  winter.  The  landscape  was  ex- 
ceedingly plain:  it  was  a  desert.  A  scanty  woodland 
stretched  out  over  the  flat  expanse  and  bordered  the 
sandy  avenues,  where  the  pedestrian  heard  not.  even  the 
sound  of  his  own  footsteps;  it  was  a  place  of  silence. 
But  this  Koenigs-  Wusterhausen  is  expressive.  It  is  a 
revelation  of  Frederick  William,  and  the  simplicity  of 
his  life,  enframed  in  dry  prose.  Alas  !  I  have  seen  there 
in  a  mirage  the  beauties  of  the  Trianon,  and  the  majes- 
tic Palace  of  Versailles,  the  Babylonian  flights  of  stairs 
that  lead  to  the  high  terrace,  the  long,  solemn  line  of 
the  Chateau  and  the  great  windows  of  the  Triumphal 
Hall,  where  the  fifth  successor  of  Frederick  William  in- 
augurated, twenty  years  ago,  the  German  Empire. 

Wilhelmina  and  Fritz  suffered  at  Wusterhausen  from 
the  mediocrity  of  their  quarters  and  the  narrowness  of 
their  apartments,  or,  "to  better  explain,  the  garret," 
where  their  Royal  Highnesses  were  unworthily  lodged. 
But,  above  all,  they  suffered  from  perpetual  contact 
with  the  king.  In  this  small  space  they  lived  upon 
each  other. 


180  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

Frederick  tried  to  lighten  his  existence  through  read- 
ing and  correspondence.  He  often  wrote  to  Lieutenant 
Borcke. 

His  friendship  increased  for  this  officer.  He  ex- 
pressed his  sentiments  in  terms  of  peculiar  tenderness: 
"No  one  loves  and  esteems  you  as  much  as  I  do.  .  .  . 
Give  me  the  half  of  this  regard  in  reciprocal  friend- 
ship." He  made  excuses  for  tiring  him  with  his  sorrows 
and  his  importunate  affection.  When  Borcke  was  sick 
the  prince  threatened  the  whole  race  of  physicians  with 
his  anger  if  they  did  not  cure  his  "dear  Bork;"  he 
predicted  what  would  happen  to  them  by  a  reminis- 
cence of  Moliere,  "from  this  will  come  dropsy  which 
will  make  them  fall  into  a  consuming  fever,  this  will 
engender  pulmonary  trouble  that  will  finally  kill  them." 
He  reiterates  the  fear  of  importuning  his  friend:  "My 
tiresome  affection  will  escape  from  me  and  lay  bare  to 
you  these  sentiments  of  a  heart  that  you  entirely  pos- 
sess, which  cannot  be  appeased  except  by  knowing  that 
you  are  fully  convinced  of  the  true  love  with  which  it 
worships  you." 

He  was  certain  enough  of  this  friend,  whom  the  king, 
however,  had  charged  to  watch  over  him,  that  he  might 
learn  his  secrets  in  this  way.  "The  king,"  writes 
Frederick  to  him,  "continues  to  be  in  a  bad  humor; 
he  scolds  everybody,  and  is  not  content  with  the  world 
nor  himself.  .  .  .  He  is  still  terribly  angry  with 
me.  ..."  The  prince  complained  of  the  life  he  led. 
He  was  weary  of  the  chase :  < '  To-morrow  there  will 
be  a  hunt  at  force,  and  the  day  after,  and  Sunday  and 
Monday."     He  was  tired  of  the  tabagie,  where  his  only 


FATHER    AND    SON.  181 

pleasure  was  "to  open  the  nuts,  a  pleasure  worthy  of  the 
place  we  occupy."  He  wearied  of  the  buffoonery  of 
the  king's  jesters  and  the  conversation  of  the  guests: 
4 'We  have  here  a  most  foolish  assemblage  of  a  varied 
and  badly-chosen  company,  for  neither  the  dispositions, 
ages  nor  inclinations  of  those  who  compose  it  are  con- 
genial, so  that  there  is  no  continued  discourse."  He  is 
worn  out  with  these  days,  and  wishes  he  had  not  lived 
them.  "I  arose  at  five  o'clock  this  morning,  and  it  is 
now  midnight.  I  am  so  tired  out  with  what  I  see  that 
I  wish  I  could  efface  it  from  my  memory  as  completely 
as  if  it  had  never  been  there." 

At  times  he  would  appear  resigned:  "One  learns 
after  a  long  while  to  become  free  from  care.  I  am  in 
that  condition  at  the  present  hour,  and,  in  spite  of  all 
that  may  happen  to  me,  I  play  the  flute,  read,  and  love 
my  friends  always  more  than  myself,"  but  neither  the 
reading,  the  music,  nor  the  friendship  could  have  the 
power,  notwithstanding  his  desire  for  it,  to  give  him 
patience  and  put  him  in  a  good  humor  again:  "We 
undergo,  every  day,  horrible  scenes;  I  am  so  tired  of 
it  that  I  should  prefer  begging  my  bread  to  living 
longer  in  the  position  in  which  I  am  placed."  He  had 
a  queer  manner  of  speaking  of  a  danger  that  the  king 
had  passed  through:  "  A  thumb's  width  more,  and  the 
king  would  have  been  drowned  with  all  the  baggage."  13° 

The  critical  points  on  the  subject  of  the  marriages, 
to  which  we  must  return,  had  recommenced;  the  king 
did  not  cease  to  lose  his  temper.  Frederick  saw  "that 
there  was  no  possible  hope  for  a  reconciliation "  be- 
tween his  father    and  himself,   and   wished   only   for   a 


182  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

"suspension  of  invectives."  He  made  an  attempt  to 
obtain  this  twice;  not  daring  to  speak  to  the  king,  he 
wrote.  He  excused  himself,  first  of  all,  for  not  seek- 
ing his  dear  father  for  fear  that  he  would  receive  a 
worse  welcome  than  usual,  and  that  the  petition  he 
was  going  to  make  would  irritate  him.  He  begged  him 
then  by  letter  to  be  more  gracious.  He  assured  the 
king  that  in  his  conscience,  most  carefully  examined, 
he  found  nothing  with  which  to  reproach  himself.  If 
he  had  done,  without  knowing  or  desiring  it,  anything 
that  would  offend  his  papa,  he  very  humbly  implored 
his  pardon.  He  hoped  that  his  dear  papa  would  re- 
nounce this  cruel  hatred  (grausamen  Hass)  that  he 
showed  in  his  manner  and  action.  He  could  not  resign 
himself,  after  always  believing  that  he  had  a  gracious 
father,  to  the  idea  that  the  contrary  could  be  true. 
He  had,  then,  the  hope  and  '  confidence  that  his  dear 
papa  would  reflect  upon  all  this  and  become  again 
gracious  to  him;  in  any  case  he  assured  him  that,  even 
in  disgrace,  he  was,  with  a  very  humble  and  filial  re- 
spect for  his  dear  papa,  his  most  obedient  son  and 
servitor.  This  language,  so  humble  with  servile  cir- 
cumlocutions, exasperated  the  king,  who  in  turn  took 
up  his  pen  and,  as  he  was  glad  to  have  the  opportunity 
to  say  what  he  had  on  his  mind,  poured  out  all  his  griefs: 
"He  has,"  wrote  the  king,  using  the  disdainful  form 
of  the  third  person,  "a  willful,  wicked  head;  he  does 
\  not  love  his  father.  A  son  who  loves  his  father  does 
the  will  of  that  father,  not  only  in  his  presence,  but 
even  when  he  is  not  there  to  see  him.  He  knows 
well   that  I   cannot  bear  an   effeminate  boy,    who    has 


FATHER    AND    SON.  183 

not  a  single  manly  inspiration,  who  does  not  know 
how  to  mount  a  horse,  nor  shoot,  who  is  decidedly 
untidy  about  his  person,  does  not  cut  his  hair  and 
has  it  curled  like  a  fool's.  And  with  all  this  a  grand 
air  of  a  proud  seignior,  speaking  to  no  one,  or  to 
such  or  such  a  personage,  and  is  neither  affable  nor 
popular.  He  makes  grimaces  as  if  he  were  a  fool. 
He  never  does  my  will  except  by  force.  He  does 
nothing  through  filial  love.  He  has  no  other  pleasure 
than  to  follow  his  own  inclination.  This  is  my  an- 
swer."131 

This  was  the  correspondence  between  father  and  son, 
under  the  roof  of  Wusterhauseu,  from  one  room  to 
the  other.  About  six  weeks  passed.  The  days  became 
darker  and  darker;  the  scenes  became  more  frequent; 
then  the  priuce  tried  heroic  means.  It  was  again  at 
Wusterhausen;  they  celebrated  the  feast  of  St.  Hubert 
that  the  king  loved  to  commemorate  in  a  gay  manner, 
Frederick  was  seated  opposite  his  father  and  mother, 
by  the  side  of  Suhm,  Minister  of  Saxony.  Contrary  to 
his  custom  he  began  to  drink  excessively.  "  I  am  sure 
I  will  be  sick  to-morrow,"  said  he  to  Suhm.  Very 
soon  the  wine  began  to  take  effect;  he  complained  to 
his  neighbor  of  his  slavish  life.  He  begged  him  to 
procure  through  the  intervention  of  the  King  of  Poland, 
his  permission  to  travel.  He  spoke  so  loud  that  he 
could  be  heard  on  the  other  side  of  the  table.  The  ^ 
queen  became  uneasy  and  made  a  sign  to  Suhm 
to  calm  him,  but  the  prince  talked  on  and,  pointing 
to  the  king,  he  repeated,  "  However  I  love  him!" 
<*What  did  he    say?"  asked   the  king  of   Suhm.     The 


184  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

minister  answered  that  the  prince  was  drunk  and  not  re- 
sponsible for  what  he  said.  "Bah!  "  replied  the  king, 
"He  is  only  pretending,  but  what  did  he  say?"  "The 
prince  said  that  although  the  king  forced  him  to  drink 
too  much  he  loved  him."  "  He  is  only  pretending," 
said  the  king  again.  Suhm  gave  his  word  of  honor 
that  the  prince  was  really  drunk.  "I  have  just  pinched 
him,"  he  said,  "and  he  did  not  feel  it."  For 
a  moment  Fritz  remained  quiet,  but  soon  began 
again.  The  queen  retired;  Suhm  advised  the  prince 
to  go  to  bed;  the  prince  answered  that  he  would  not 
leave  until  he  had  kissed  his  father's  hand.  The  king, 
who  enjoyed  the  scene,  extended  his  hand,  laughing; 
the  prince  demanded  the  other;  he  covered  them  with 
kisses  and  drew  his  father  to  him.  The  whole  as- 
sembly burst  into  applause.  Then  Fritz  made  the 
tour  of  the  table,  threw  himself  on  his  knees  before 
his  father,  embraced  him  affectionately  and  talked  in- 
cessantly. He  declared  that  he  loved  him  with  all 
his  heart,  that  he  had  been  maligned  by  people  who 
were  interested  in  creating  this  family  disturbance, 
that  he  would  love  and  serve  the  king  all  his  life, 
"Good,  good!"  said  the  king,  "Just  so;  he  is  a  man 
of  honor."  All  were  saddened  by  this  scene,  and  tears 
came  into  their  eyes.  Finally  the  prince  was  led  away.132 
In  the  evening  at  the  tabagie  they  noticed  that  the 
king  was  very  gay.  Fritz  to  begin  drinking,  to  get 
drunk!  This  was  a  novelty.  Is  the  boy  beginning  to 
acquire  "manly  traits?"  But  the  father  could  scarce- 
ly believe  in  such  a  rapid  transformation.  They  per- 
suaded him  that  the  prince  was  playing  a  comedy,  a 
thing  that  was  possible,    and  even  probable. 


FATHER    AND    SON.  185 

The  forced  witnesses  to  this  family  life  could  no 
longer  support  the  spectacle  The  preceptors,  Fink- 
enstein  and  Kalkstein,  insisted  upon  being  dismissed. 
It  was  granted  them  in  Mar-li,  1729.  The  king  at- 
tached two  new  officers  to  his  son's  suite:  Colonel  von 
Rochow  and  Lieutenant  von  keyserlingk.133  The  first 
he  chose  for  his  serious  character,  the  second  because 
he  was  more  "alert."  In  an  insi ruction  to  Rochow 
he  stated  that  the  prince  loved  but.  the-  pleasures 
and  occupations  of  an  idler.  The  Colonel  must  there- 
fore represent  to  him  "that  all  effeminate,  lascivious 
pursuits  were  very  unbecoming  to  a  man;  they  were 
good  only  for  dandies  and  fops,  but  a  dandy  was  <^i 
empty-headed,  silly  dressed-up  doll.  .  .  .  The 
prince  in  his  walk,  laugh  and  language  was  airV. 
He  did  not  hold  himself  erect  on  horseback.  Now, 
anyone  who  hangs  his  head  between  his  shoulders  and 
who  is  unsteady  in  his  carriage,  is  but  an  old  rag. 
Rochow  must  pull  off  his  nightcap  and  give  him  more 
energy.  The  prince  was  too  pretentious;  he  must  be 
taught  to  be  polite  and  obliging  to  everybody;  he 
must  be  inspired  with  a  sincere,  good  disposition, 
be  led  to  question  people,  both  high  and  low,  for 
that  is  the  way  to  learn  everything  and  become  clev- 
er." Finally  the  king  ordered  that  his  son  should  con- 
tinue his  accustomed  regime  of  prayers  and  readings  of 
the  Holy  Gospel,  and  that  he  should  obey  in  the  future 
voluntarily — of  his  own  free  will — not  with  a  sour  face, 
for  obeying  with  a  sour  face  was  not  obeying.  To 
be  brief,  Rochow  must  employ  every  means  possible 
to   make   the  prince   a  brave  boy,   an  honest  man,   an 


186  FREDERICK.   THE    GREAT. 

officer.     If  lie  did  not  suppled  it  would  be  a  great  mis- 
fortune.134 

It  was  a  great  misfortune,  for  Rochow  did  not  suc- 
ceed any  better   than  hiH  predecessors. 

THE    RESUMPTION    OF    VHE    MARRIAGE    NEGOTIATIONS. 

At  the  time  of  the  two  attempts  of  Frederick  to 
have  a  reconciliation  with  his  father,  the  intrigues  in 
regard  to  the»double  marriage  had  begun  their  course 
again,  and  w^re  soon  complicated  in  a  .broil  with 
Hanover.135  Ten  Hanoverians  having  been  carried  off 
and  iiKJofporated  into  the  service  of  Prussia,  the  Prus- 
sian recruiters  were  arrested  in  Hanover.  In  the  mean- 
while, the  Prussian  peasants  had  cut  and  carried  off  the 
I,  a  from  a  prairie  on  the  frontier,  the  possession  of 
which  was  contested  by  Hanover  and  Brandenburg  ; 
the  Hanoverian  peasants  went  after  this  hay  and  took 
it  back  to  their  barns.  This  was  as  grave  a  matter  as 
the  Rabelaisian  quarrel  of  the  cake-bakers  of  Lerne, 
bat  Frederick  William  lost  patience  at  the  least  op- 
position that  came  from  his  brother-in-law  of  England ; 
his  sensitiveness  about  the  rights  of  his  recruiters  was 
extreme ;  and  then  too,  Europe  was  in  one  of  her 
crises  from  whence  a  general  conflict  could  ensue. 
From  Vienna,  where  they  believed  everything  was  in 
readiness  for  war,  they  stirred  up  "  the  Prussian  fire 
so  as  to  cook  their  eggs."136  The  king  furious,  and  as 
usual  irresolute,  was  in  a  continual  storm.  His  fits  of 
gout  came  on  at  the  same  time. 

Upon  this  basis  of  calamities,  this  anger  and  suffer- 
ing,  was  founded  the  matrimonial  comedy. 


FATHER   AND    SON.  187 

It  was,  as  Wilhelmina  said,  always  "  the  same  song." 
The  king  desired  to  have  from  England  a  categorical 
response.  As  soon  as  he  arrived  at  Wusterhausen,  in 
the  autumn  of  1828,  he  declared  to  the  queen  that  it 
was  time,  "to  ring  the  bell  in  regard  to  Wilhelmina, 
and  find  out  what  the  English  intended  to  do,  for  he 
was  not  going  to  be  their  dupe  any  longer."  So, 
"you  write  immediately  for  them  to  send  you  posi- 
tive word  as  to  what  hold  I  have  on  them  in  this 
matter,  because  I  will  take  other  measures."  The 
queen  wrote  in  the  most  pathetic  manner,  to  her  sister- 
in-law,  the  Queen  of  England.  She  only  received 
from  her  vague  answers.  She  was  assured,  in  October, 
of  the  certainty  of  the  desire  to  conclude  the  alli- 
ance and  to  restore  harmony  to  the  two  Courts ; 
but,  in  December,  they  announced  to  her,  that  if  they 
finally  resolved  upon  the  marriage  of  Wilhelmina,  it 
would  be  "only  on  condition  that  the  prince,  her 
brother,  would  be  married  at  the  same  time."  Now 
the  King  of  Prussia  wished  to  establish  his  daughter, 
but  would  not  enter  into  any  negotiations  in  regard 
to  his  son. 

He  found  the  prince  too  young,  and  did  not  care 
about  having  a  daughter-in-law  princess  who  was  a 
grande  dame  accustomed  to  the  luxuries  of  an  opulent 
Court.  He  feared  to  emancipate  his  son,  and  still 
more  to  give  him  a  pleasure.  He  turned  then  a  deaf 
ear  to  these  propositions,  and  as  the  queen,  "one  night 
when  they  were  both  awake,  profited  by  this  moment 
to  ask  him  for  an  agreeable  answer  to  the  propositions 
coming   from    London,    he   rudely    repulsed    her    and 


188  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

commenced  to  abuse  her  and  the  English,  in  terms 
that  would  make  modesty  blush.  He  added,  that  the 
English  acted  for  her  alone,  and  not  for  him,  and  that 
her  son  whom  she  loved  so  dearly,  was  nothing  but  a 
knave  who  wished  to  escape  through  marriage,  but 
he  knew  well  enough  how  to  hold  him."137  It  must  be 
admitted  that  he  judged  rightly  of  the  disposition  of 
both  his  son  and  England  who  really  seemed  to  act 
only  through   sympathy  for  the   Queen  of  Prussia. 

During  the  whole  year  of  1729,  the  negotiations 
made  slow  progress,  the  condition  of  general  politics 
preventing  any  connected  measures  being  taken.  The 
two  parties  remained  in  their  respective  positions :  the 
Court  of  London  stood  firm  for  the  double  alliance, 
the  King  of  Prussia  demanding  a  declaration  for 
Wilhelmina  alone,  threatening  to  marry  her,  whether 
or  no,  if  he  did  not  receive  satisfaction.  He  had  a 
list  of  aspirants  ready,  whose  names  he  flung  at  the 
queen  on  all  occasions.  She  tried  to  gain  time  and. 
was  always  "waiting  for  answers  from  England,"  which 
arrived,  but  she  dared  not  show  them.  Seckendorff 
and  Grumbkow  circumvented  the  king  more  and  more. 
They  pushed  their  treason  so  far  as  to  corrupt  Reich- 
enbach,  Prussia's  own  Minister  at  the  Court  of  London; 
they  made  him  work  against  these  marriages,  and 
guided  him  through  information  given  about  the 
scandalous  proceedings   at  the  Prussian    Court. 

The  Queen,  Frederick  and  Wilhelmina,  continued 
their  secret  policy.  We  no  longer  know  so  much 
about  their  actions  since  the  departure  of  Rottenburg 
from   Berlin;    Sauveterre,    who    took  his  place,    was  a 


FATHER    AND    SON.  189 

minor  personage,  not  so  well  known  in  court  circles, 
less  enterprising,  and  even  timid.  He,  however,  kept 
up  his  relations  with  the  ministers  friendly  to  France, 
particularly  with  Cnyphausen,  who  gave  him  authentic 
information.  He  was  in  regular  confidential  inter- 
course with  the  English  Minister,  who  was  the  queen's 
greatest  resource.138  The  dispatches  of  the  two  minis- 
ters show,  that  the  prince  and  queen  intrigued  at  Lon- 
don, as  well  as  Seckendorff  and  Grumbkow,  without 
the  king's  knowledge. 

The  Queen  related  to  Du  Bourgay  the  conversations 
with  her  husband,  showed  him  the  letters  that  she  wrote, 
and  charged  him  with  expediting  the  news  to  his  gov- 
ernment ;  she  even  proposed  to  dictate  these  dispatches. 
Cnyphausen  and  Du  Bourgay  rightly  declined  to  offici- 
ate in  this  way.  Then  "she  took  out  her  handkerchief 
and  began  to  cry."  "Must  I  be  always  unhappy,"  said 
she,  '  <  and  will  they  never  have  compassion  upon  me  in 
England?"  She  also  invoked  the  compassion  of  France  ; 
she  requested  Sauveterre  to  solicit  the  good  offices  of 
his  court  with  England  * '  in  the  sorrowful  situation  in 
which  she  was  placed."  She  could  not  say  more, 
through  the  precautions  she  was  obliged  to  take,  but 
the  only  way  she  saw  of  saving  herself  was  by  the  aid 
of  the  Court  of  France. 

France  responded:  "Assure  the  queen  that  we  feel 
sensitively  her  situation  ;  we  will  carry  out  all  the  plans 
that  seem  desirable  to  her."  They  ordered  Sauveterre, 
"to  learn  from  the  queen  herself,  so  as  to  regulate 
the  proceedings  better,  the  progress  of  the  means  she 
continued  to  employ  to  vanquish  the  obstacles  that  she 


190  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

encountered  in  trying  to  obtain  the  object  of  her  de- 
sires." The  queen  hastened  to  show  her  gratitude. 
She  was  "  very  sensible  to  this  friendship  shown  her, 
upon  which  she  had  always  relied.  It  was  a  great  com- 
fort in  her  trouble  to  be  assured  of  it.  .  .  She 
would  never  relax  her  friendship  for  France  and  would 
rear  the  prince  with  the  sentiment  of  gratitude  that  he 
must  certainly  show  some  day."  Sophia  Dorothea 
believed  herself  far  superior  to  the  diplomacy  of  her 
husband,  and  all  others.  As  if  the  whole  world  must 
agree  to  satisfy  "  the  ambition  of  her  daughter,  who 
was  early  instilled  with  the  hope  of  marrying  the 
Prince  of  Wales,"  she  said,  that  she  was  tired  of  see- 
ing Wilhelmina  the  mark  for  such  and  such  an  un- 
worthy parti,  and  concluded  with  this  menace:  "If 
you  do  not  make  them  leave  me  in  peace  I  will  turn  all 
Europe  upside  down."  This  haughtiness,  this  obsti- 
nacy, and  the  awkward  mistakes  she  committed,  the 
art  in  which  she  excelled,  of  badly  placing  her  confi- 
dences, drove  her  accomplices  and  allies  to  despair. 
Du  Bourgay  and  Sauveterre  accused  her  of  spoiling 
everything.  "She  repulsed  the  m  persons  that  were 
attached  to  her"  and  "  precipitated "  their  plans  too 
much  ;"  she  is,"  said  Cnyphausen,  "unhappy  through 
her  own  fault."  139 

On  the  list  of  the  king's  aspirants  was  the  Margrave 
of  Schwedt,  a  Brandenburg  prince,  a  branch  of  the 
family  of  the  Great  Elector.  This  projected  alliance 
greatly  horrified  the  queen  and  her  daughter,  and  lit- 
tle pleased  the  family  of  the  young  Margrave:  his 
mother,  to  whom  the  king   "paid  a  visit  in  order  to 


FATHER    AND    SON.  191 

make  the  offer  of  marriage,"  returned  thanks  for  the 
great  honor,  but  made  excuses  on  account  of  the  pain 
it  would  give  to  the  queen  and  the  royal  princess, 
"who  had  been  reared  with  the  idea  of  wearing  a 
crown."  Afterwards,  she  had  explanations  with  the 
queen,  telling  her  that  she  infinitely  dreaded  this  fine 
marriage  for  her  son:  "The  king  will  not  give  more 
than  thirty  thousand  crowns  for  dot.  He  will  treat  his 
son-in-law  as  a  vassal  and  a  subject.  He  will  have  him 
watched,  to  spy  over  his  conduct  toward  his  wife. 
And  what  will  happen,  when  the  Crown  Prince  comes  to 
the  throne?  He  will  be  my  son's  enemy;  it  will  be  much 
better  for  him  to  wait ;  he  can  easily  find  a  dot  of  two 
hundred  thousand  crowns."  The  king  addressed  himself 
also  to  Prince  Anhalt,  uncle  of  the  Margrave;  Anhalt 
politely  refused.  It  was  fear  of  Frederick's  resentment 
that  caused  this  reserve  in  Schwedt's  family.  The 
Crown  Prince  confirms  it  in  the  following  expressions. 
He  wrote  to  Prince  Anhalt,  "through  the  means  of  a 
faithful  friend,"  to  say  that  if  he  prevented  the  mar- 
riage, he  could  count  "upon  his  gratitude  to  him  and 
his  family,  which  he  would  consider  as  his  own." 

Frederick  had  a  secret  correspondence  with  the 
English  Court;  he  received  letters  from  the  Prince  of 
Wales  by  safe  means.  He  found  a  way  to  conciliate 
the  opposing  inclinations  of  the  two  courts.  England 
wished  the  double  marriage,  the  King  of  Prussia  the 
single  one.  If  England  would  be  contented,  for  the 
nonce,  with  the  union  of  Wilhelmina  and  the  Prince  of 
Wales,  the  prince  would  give  his  word,  and  he  reiter- 
ated it  in  writing,  that  "on  his  honor,  he  would  never 


192  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

marry  any  one  but  the  Princess  Amelia;"  he  promised 
this  without  the  knowledge  and  against  the  will  of  his 
father.  He  also  thought  that  the  politics  of  his  father 
did  not  affect  him.140  In  the  month  of  August,  1729,  at 
the  time  when  war  with  Hanover  was  so  imminent  that 
forty  thousand  Prussians  were  mobilized,  the  prince,  who 
was  in  the  ranks  of  the  army,  ready  for  the  march, 
"  passed  his  assurances  of  friendship  secretly  to  England 
and  the  Prince  of  Wales,  saying  that  he  was  confident 
of  the  justice  that  they  always  rendered  to  his  senti- 
ments, notwithstanding  the  then  present  crisis."141 

The  king  did  not  know  of  all  this  definitely.  A  man, 
a  king,  could  he  imagine  it  possible  to  be  duped  to  this 
extent?  One  of  his  ministers,  Cnyphausen,  betrayed 
his  secrets  to  France  and  England;  another,  Grumb- 
kow,  sold  them  to  Austria,  and  employed  against  his 
master  his  own  envoy  that  he  sent  to  London.  The 
queen  and  the  Crown  Prince  negotiated  against  him. 
It  was,  perhaps,  the  strangest  cross-purpose  intriguing 
ever  known.  Frederick  William,  though,  divined  a 
part  of  the  truth:  "I  know,  you  little  rascal,  all  that 
you  are  doing  to  withdraw  yourself  from  my  rule,  but 
it  is  in  vain  for  you  to  think  that  you  will  succeed," 
said  he  to  his  son.  He  added:  "I  am  going  to  keep 
thee  in  leading  strings  and  mortify  thee  a  little  while 
longer."  And  the  Court  of  Prussia  became  a  Hades, 
where  everybody  endured  the  torments  of  the  damned. 

The  queen  was  always  in  faints,  tears,  or  anger.  At 
one  period,  when  she  was  pressed  hard  by  the  king  for 
the  answers  from  England,  she  "resolved  to  fall  sick." 
She   "began  by  complaining    in  the  morning,  and    to 


FATHER    AND    SON.  193 

make  it  more  effective,  she  pretended  to  faint."  Several 
days  she  kept  up  these  simulations;  then  she  became 
really  ill,  and  as  she  was  expecting  to  be  confined,  her 
peril  was  great.  The  king,  who  was  at  Potsdam,  be- 
lieved at  first  it  was  only  a  little  game.  At  last,  sum- 
moned by  special  courier,  he  returned.  As  soon  as  he 
saw  her,  .his  suspicions  vanished;  he  cried,  sobbed, 
made  excuses  for  the  sorrow  he  had  caused  her,  and 
left  her  in  peace  for  a  few  days;  but  these  calm  mo- 
ments were  rare,  and  the  quarrels  recommenced. 

The  king  incessantly  reproached  the  queen  with  the 
conduct  of  his  two  elder  children.  He  expressed  his 
anger  one  day  by  way  of  a  cruel  reminiscence.  Ad- 
dressing himself  to  Wilhelmina  and  the  Crown  Prince, 
he  said:  "You  should  curse  your  mother;  it  is  she  who 
has  been  the  cause  of  your  being  badly  governed.  I 
had  a  preceptor  who  was  an  honest  man.  I  will  al- 
ways remember  a  story  that  he  related  to  me  in  my 
youth.  <  There  was  a  man  at  Carthage  who  was  con- 
demned to  death,  for  several  crimes  that  he  had  com- 
mitted. As  they  were  conducting  him  to  his  punish- 
ment he  asked  to  be  allowed  to  speak  with  his  mother. 
They  ordered  her  to  approach.  He  drew  quite  near,  as 
if  he  were  going  to  speak  low  to  her,  and  tore  off  her 
ear  with  his  teeth.  "I  treat  you  thus,"  said  he  to  his 
mother,  "that  you  may  serve  as  an  example  to  all  par- 
ents who  have  not  reared  their  children  in  the  practice 
of  virtue."'     Now,  you  can  apply  this  to  yourselves."142 

The  queen  inspired  pity  in  everybody.  It  was  said 
that  she  could  not  reach  the  end  of  her  confinement. 
"The  child  that  she  carries,"  wrote  Sauveterre,  "is  one 


194  FREDERICK   THE    GREAT. 

of  sorrow."  The  Court  of  France  already  mourned  for 
her:  "We  shall  earnestly  regret  the  Queen  of  Prussia; 
she  will  be  an  irreparable  loss  to  her  family."143  In  even 
more  compassionate  accents,  the  court,  the  city,  the  for- 
eigners, sympathized  with  the  Crown  Prince  upon  his 
fate,  for  the  queen  was  not  beloved;  but  Frederick  per- 
sisted in  all  the  customs  odious  to  his  father.  He  said 
that  his  uniform  was  "his  shroud,"  and  the  word,  re- 
peated by  some  spy,  entered  like  a  poisoned  arrow 
into  the  heart  of  the  king,  who  revenged  himself  upon 
a  dressing-gown  of  gold  brocade,  which  he  found  his 
son  wearing,  by  throwing  it  in  the  fire  with  a  great 
burst  of  anger.  Frederick,  at  last,  according  to  his 
sister's  Memoirs,  accustomed  himself  to  a'  bad  life.  One 
of  the  king's  pages,  named  Keith,  was  the  instrument 
through  which  he  carried  on  his  debauchery.  This 
young  man  had  found  a  way  of  insinuating  himself 
into  the  prince's  good  graces,  and  was  passionately  be- 
loved and  made  a  most  intimate  confidant.  Freder- 
ick had  "familiarities"  with  him  that  Wilhelmina 
judged  improper:  he  excused  himself,  saying  "that 
the  page  served  him  as  a  spy,  and  rendered  him  great 
services."  The  king,  to  whom  this  Keith  appeared  sus- 
picious, sent  him  as  an  officer  to  a  regiment  that  was 
quartered  in  Cleves.  As  friends,  accomplices  and  confi- 
dants were  necessary  to  Frederick,  Keith  was  replaced 
by  Lieutenant  Katte,  "whose  look  had  something 
foreboding  in  it."144  We  will  soon  hear  again  of  Lieu- 
tenant Keith  and  Lieutenant  Katte. 

In  order  to  pay  for  his  forbidden  pleasures,  and  also 
for  his  books   and  music,  Frederick   made  debts.      The 


FATHER    AND    SON.  195 

father  was  informed  of  this  through  the  claims  of  a 
creditor,  to  whom  he  owed  seven  thousand  thalers.  He 
did  not  become  angry,  as  one  would  suppose  ;  he  spoke 
like  a  rich  miser:  "  It  is  not  money  that  I  lack,"  and  he 
offered  to  pay  "  with  pleasure,  if  his  son  would  change 
his  conduct  and  become  an  honest  man."  But  the  rev- 
elation of  the  creditor  had  undoubtedly  affected  him. 
He  published  an  edict  against  loans  to  minors,  stating 
that  whoever  loaned  money  to  minors  of  the  royal  fam- 
ily would  be  condemned  to  hard  labor,  and  even  to 
death,  according  to  circumstances.  The  act  committed 
by  Frederick  was,  in  his  eyes,  a  real  crime,  added  to  all 
those  for  which  he  had  already  been  reproached.145 

It  was  a  crime,  and  one  not  the  least  grave,  to  practice 
French  witticism,  to  make  "bons  mots"  and  assume  a 
mocking  air.  Frederick  and  Wilhelmina  made  fun  of 
their  father  in  their  tete-a-tetes,  that  still  continued. 
Wilhelmina  became  very  ill  about  the  first  part  of  the 
year  1729.  Her  mother,  who  understood  these  feigned 
illnesses,  supposed,  in  the  beginning  of  it,  that  this 
was  a  little  comedy.  She  forced  her  to  arise,  and 
then  led  her  to  the  king,  who  saw  that  she  was  very 
much  changed,  and  thinking,  to  cure  her,  compelled 
her  to  drink  a  goblet  of  strong  old  Rhine  wine.  This 
made  her  delirious.  It  was  treated,  at  the  outset,  as 
a  high  fever,  until  smallpox  was  developed.  She  was 
then  shut  up,  like  a  prisoner  of  State,  badly  cared  for 
by  a  chambermaid,  and  deserted  by  all  except  her 
brother.  The  prince,  who  had  had  the  smallpox,  made 
her  two  secret  visits  a  day.  They  charmed  their  con- 
versations with  slander. 


196  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

Wilhelmina  acknowledged  that  they  made  use,  above 
all,  of  satire,  and  "that  the  neighbor  was  not  spared." 
They  had  read  together  the  Roman  Comique  of  Scar- 
ron,  and  they  applied  it  to  their  enemies  of  the  "Impe- 
rial clique."  They  called  Grumbkow  La  Rancune 
(Rancor),  Seckendorff,  La  Rapiniere  (Pilferer),  and  the 
Prince  of  Schwedt,  Saldagne.  The  queen  had  for  first- 
lady-in-waiting  a  very  worthy  woman,  named  Mad- 
ame de  Kamken  :  "Although  we  esteemed  this  lady 
highly,"  said  Wilhelmina,  "we  could  not  help  seeing  her 
ridiculous  side  and  amusing  ourselves  with  her.  As 
she  was  very  corpulent,  and  her  figure  resembled  Madame 
Bouvillon,  we  gave  her  that  name.  We  often  indulged 
in  this  fun  in  her  presence,  which  made  her  curious  to 
know  who  this  Madame  Bouvillon  was  of  whom  we 
talked  so  much.  My  brother  made  her  believe  that  she 
was  the  principal  lady-in-waiting  of  the  Queen  of  Spain. 
After  our  return  to  Berlin,  one  day,  during  a  court  draw- 
ing-room, the  Spanish  Court  was  spoken  of,  and  she  gave 
the  information  that  all  the  Camerera  Mayors  were  from 
the  family  of  Bouvillon.  They  laughed  at  her  out- 
right, and,  for  my  part,  I  thought  I  would  suffocate." 
This  gayety,  French  fashion,  these  witty  farces,  these 
"conundrums,"  were  odious  to  the  king,  who  had  a  dif- 
ferent kind  of  humor,  and  liked  only  that  raillery  that 
he  practiced  himself.  He  must  have  suspected  that  he 
had  his  share  in  these  quibbles.  His  children,  among 
themselves,  called  him  by  a  name  that  they  also  found 
in  the  Roman:   "We  named  the  king,  Ragotin."146 

Wilhelmina  related  both  the  comical  and  tragical 
scenes.     Once,  the  king,  on  returning  from  the  hunt, 


FATHER   AND    SON.  197 

came  near  surprising  them  in  the  queen's  apartments, 
where  they  had  been  forbidden  to  go.  Fritz  rushed  to 
an  adjacent  toilet-room,  and  the  princess  crept  under 
the  queen's  bed,  which  was  very  low.  They  remained 
in  their  hiding-places  the  whole  time  that  the  king  was 
resting  in  an  arm-chair,  where,  from  fatigue,  he  had 
fallen  asleep.  Another  time  he  threw  plates  at  the 
heads  of  his  children.  The  dinner  finished,  as  Wilhel- 
mina  was  passing  by  him,  he  aimed  a  hard  blow  at 
her  with  his  crutch,  which  she  managed  to  evade.  He 
was  then  having  one  of  his  spells  of  gout,  and  had 
himself  rolled  about  in  an  arm-chair.  Sometimes  he 
would  follow  Wilhelmina  "in  this  chariot,"  but  those 
who  were  pushing  the  chair  gave  her  time  to  get  out  of 
the  way.147  However,  he  had  not  yet  actually  struck 
his  daughter.  He  had  struck  only  Frederick,  but  he 
struck  him  more  and  more  frequent.  Upon  this  point 
the  testimony  of  Wilhelmina  is  authoritatively  con- 
firmed by  others.  For  some  time  the  king  had  beaten 
his  son,  but  his  brutalities  were  more  odious  as  his 
child  grew  to  be  a  young  man,  and  had  the  conscious- 
ness and  pride  of  his  dignity  as  Crown  Prince.  In  De- 
cember, 1729,  the  king  went  to  the  greatest  extremes  of 
violence.  As  the  prince  was  entering  his  room  one 
day,  the  king  beat  him  with  a  cane,  caught  him  by  the 
throat  and  hair,  threw  him  down,  and  forced  him  to 
kiss  his  feet  and  beg  his  pardon.  These  atrocious 
scenes  were  continually  recurring.  The  king  spread 
before  the  eyes  of  officers,  generals,  his  household, 
everybody,  the  humiliation  of  his  son,  and  he  defied 
and  insulted  him  in  his    misery:    "Any  other  officer," 


198  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

said  he,  "who  is  displeased  with  the  king's  aspect  to- 
ward him  can  receive  his  dismissal,  but  thou,  the  prince, 
art  obliged  to  remain."  He  went  so  far  as  to  forbid  his 
son  all  hoj3e  of  a  better  fate.  He  announced  to  him 
that  he  intended  becoming  more  and  more  severe  each 
day:   "  You  know,"  added  he,  "  that  I  keep  my  word."  148 

In  this  way  he  provoked  and  forced  Frederick  to  put 
into  execution  a  scheme  that  had  been  in  his  head  for 
a  long  time.  "I  have  some  reason  to  believe,"  wrote 
Rottenburg,  in  July,  1728,  "that  he  meditates  flight,  al- 
though I  have  seen  him  form  the  project  before.  It  is 
also  uncertain  as  to  whether  he  intends  going  to  France 
or  England."  They  feared  to  see  him  arrive  in  France. 
"In  whatever  place  the  prince  sees  fit  to  retire,  byre- 
turn  of  courier,  there  will  undoubtedly  be  a  very  em- 
barrassing state  of  affairs. " 149  But  the  prince  did  not  care 
about  the  embarrassment  in  which  he  placed  others,  nor 
of  the  certain  peril  to  which  this  flight  would  expose  his 
mother  and  sister.  Whatever  may  have  been  his  faults, 
he  could  no  longer  support  the  ignominy  of  his  existence. 
At  each  fresh  scene  he  must  have  had  a  wish  to  end  it 
all.  The  idea  became  a  fixed  one  the  latter  part  of  the 
year  of  1729.  The  king,  who  had  suspicions  of  it, 
recommended  Colonel  Rochow  to  redouble  his  surveil- 
lance. 

Frederick  was,  in  reality,  watching  for  his  opportu- 
nity, and  he  had  confided  his  plans  to  his  sister.  One 
evening  Wilhelmina,  (after  having  bidden  him  good- 
night in  the  queen's  apartments,  and  retired  to  her 
room,)  was  making  preparations  to  go  to  bed,  when 
she  saw   a  young  man  enter,    dressed  magnificently   in 


FATHER    AND    SON.  199 

the  French  fashion.  She  uttered  a  loud  cry,  and  hid 
herself  behind  a  screen.  Her  governess  ran  to  her  res- 
cue, and  soon  brought  out  Frederick,  who  laughed 
heartily,  and,  in  the  gayest  humor  possible,  announced 
that  he  was  going  away  soon,  never  to  return.  When 
she  recovered  from  her  first  emotion,  Wilhelmina  re- 
monstrated with  him  at  the  impossibility  of  this  step 
and  its  frightful  consequences.  She  threw  herself  at  his 
feet,  cried,  and  forced  him  to  give  his  word  that  he 
would  not  undertake  it.  He  gave  his  word,  but  it  was 
from  the  lips  only.150  He  was  in  haste  to  depart,  to 
breathe  at  last  free  air  in  a  foreign  country.  But  a 
singular  incident  is  going  to  lead,  for  awhile,  the  minds 
of  this  strange  family  in  another  direction. 

THE    MISSION    OF    SIR    CHARLES    HOTHAM. 

In  the  month  of  December,  1729,  the  King  of  Prus- 
sia once  more  exacted  that  the  queen  should  obtain  a 
definite  answer  from  England.  Sophia  Dorothea  wrote 
then  an  official  letter  to  her  sister-in-law,  Queen  Caro- 
line, "to  make  known  to  her  that  if  the  Court  of  Eng- 
land still  thought  of  the  marriage  of  the  Prince  of 
Wales  with  the  eldest  Princess  of  Prussia,  it  was  time 
to  conclude  this  alliance,  but  without  any  condition ; 
there  were  other  desirable  parties  for  this  princess  who 
would  not  be  neglected,  except  for  this  negotiation."  151 
The  answers  were  not  more  satisfactory  than  usual. 
Then  the  king  showed  a  resolution  to  end  it. 

From  Potsdam,  where  he  was  at  the  time,  he  began 
an  official  correspondence  with  the  queen.  He  first  ex- 
pedited a  summons,  then  sent  an  ambassador  of  State, 


200  FREDERICK   THE    GREAT. 

Grumbkow,  to  her.  This  minister  argued  at  length 
with  the  queen;  following  the  example  of  the  devil 
when  he  wished  to  tempt  our  Saviour,  he  pretended  to 
deduce  his  reasons  from  the  Holy  Scriptures,  quoting 
passages  the  most  applicable  to  the  subject  in  question. 
He  represented  to  her  that  fathers  had  more  right  over 
their  children  than  mothers,  and  that,  when  the  parents 
could  not  agree,  the  children  should  preferably  obey 
the  father;  that  the  father  was  always  in  a  position  to 
employ  force,  and,  finally,  the  queen  would  commit  a 
wrong,  on  her  side,  if  she  did  not  accede  to  this  method 
of  reasoning.  This  princess  refuted  the  last  argument 
by  the  opposing  example  of  Bethuel,  who  answered  the 
proposition  of  marriage  made  to  him  by  Abraham's 
servant  for  Isaac:  u  We  will  call  the  damsel,  and  in- 
quire at  her  mouth."152  After  this  she  argued,  in  order 
to  repulse  the  propositions  of  sons-in-law  which  he  made 
to  her. 

Grumbkow  letting  escape  a  kind  of  menace,  when  he 
said,  "they  would  see  how  it  would  all  end,"  she 
could  restrain  herself  no  longer,  and,  addressing  him 
"in  her  character  of  Queen  of  Prussia,  treating  him  as 
her  servitor,  she  said  that  it  was  unpardonable  for  him 
to  speak  thus  to  her,  that  the  Lord  would  punish  him 
for  it,  and  she  gave  him  her  malediction."  As  Grumb- 
kow tried  to  retract  his  words,  and  to  advise  her  to, 
at  least,  use  some  diplomacy  in  her  reply  to  the  king : 
"Go,"  she  responded;  "I  know  your  expediency  and 
your  cowardice.  You  are  nothing  but  a  knave."  153  For 
this  day  the  queen  was  relieved,  but  this  was  a  mere 
passing      gratification.       The     king      insisted,     urged, 


FATHER    AND    SON.  201 

stormed.  Sophia  Dorothea  thought  that  all  was  lost, 
when,  in  March  of  the  year  1730,  the  undecided  state  of 
the  differences  between  Prussia  and  England  came  at 
last  to  a  definite  settlement,  the  two  crowns  accepting 
arbitration. 

The  royal  family  of  England  wished  to  give  the 
Queen  of  Prussia  a  proof  of  its  good  will  and  compas- 
sion. An  Envoy  Extraordinary  was  announced,  who 
carried  the  response  to  the  letter  of  the  preceding  De- 
cember. The  king,  in  spite  of  his  pretensions  to  the 
contrary,  was,  nevertheless,  very  much  flattered  at  the 
attentions  they  showed  him.  In  reality,  he  was  still 
eager  for  this  marriage  of  his  daughter  with  the  Prince 
of  Wales,  provided  that  it  did  not  complicate  embar- 
rassing conditions  for  him.  He  would  have  given  the 
other  aspirants  their  dismissal  long  ago,  if  he  had  re- 
ceived from  London  some  positive  assurance.  London 
appeared  finally  to  decide,  and  even  to  give  some  lustre 
to  her  penitence  by  sending  a  minister  of  high  standing. 
Sir  Charles  Hotham,  the  expected  envoy,  was  of  a  no- 
bility that  dated  back  to  the  Conqueror,  a  brother-in-law 
of  Lord  Chesterfield,  and,  in  order  to  please  Frederick 
William,  Colonel  of  the  Mounted  Grenadiers  of  His 
Britannic  Majesty.  The  King  of  Prussia,  with  the 
promptness  that  he  usually  gave  to  his  moods,  changed 
his  humor  from  one  day  to  the  next.  He  invited  Du 
Bourgay,  the  Minister  of  England,  to  the  tabagie, 
drank  to  King  George,  and  omitted  the  health  of  the 
Emperor.  The  household  was  at  peace  once  more. 
The  queen  became  better  and  better,  4  <  and  had  some 
hope  of  safe  deliverance." 


202  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

Sir  Charles  Hotham  arrived  on  the  second  of  April. 
The  fourth,  he  was  invited  to  dine  at  Charlottenburg 
with  the  king ,  the  queen,  who  was  about  to  be  confined, 
was  at  Berlin,  with  her  children.  The  king,  before 
dining,  had  an  interview  with  Sir  Charles  Hotham,  and, 
without  any  preamble,  declared  himself  "  charmed  that 
his  daughter  should  be  found  agreeable  to  the  King  of 
England,  who  could  also  dispose  of  his  son  whenever  it 
so  pleased  him,  and  that  she  (Wilhelmina)  would  con- 
tribute none  the  less  to  his  satisfaction  through  the  sen- 
timents for  him  with  which  she  had  been  reared." 
The  dinner  was  very  gay.  They  spoke  of  the  second 
daughter  of  the  king,  who  was  about  to  be  married  to 
the  Margrave  of  Anspach.  Suddenly  the  king  cried  out: 
' '  Girls  must  be  married  !  To  the  health  of  Wilhel- 
mina and  the  Prince  of  Wales  ! "  There  was  great  sur- 
prise, for  no  one  knew  that  affairs  had  gone  so  far. 
Grumbkow,  seated  near  the  Chevalier,  who  was  at  the 
king's  right,  leaned  toward  his  master  and  said  :  "  Are 
you  to  be  congratulated,  Sire?"  "  Yes,"  replied  the 
king ;  and  everybody  arose  and  went  to  salute  him,  as 
was  the  custom  in  this  court,  by  embracing  his  knees 
or  kissing  the  hem  of  His  Majesty's  coat.  Hotham  was 
astonished  at  the  toast,  the  tumult,  and,  more  than  all, 
at  the  king's  speech  afterward.  He  said  that  "his  daugh- 
ter was  ugly  and  pock-marked,  but,  with  these  exceptions, 
an  honest  girl,  who  would  be  true,  and  would  satisfy 
her  husband,  although,  generally  speaking,  his  idea  was 
that  all  women  were  capable  of  loving ;  and,  if  they 
had  only  desired  to  have  her  three  years  before,  they 
would  have   found    her  more  beautiful."     They   drank 


FATHER    AND    SON.  203 

excessively  at  this  dinner.154  They  made  coarse  jokes  on 
the  exchange  of  the  German  ducat  and  English  half- 
guinea.  They  ended  with  dancing  ;  even  the  servants 
cut  capers.  As  a  good  father,  the  king  thought  of 
Wilhelmina's  joy.  He  would  like  to  have  it  noised 
abroad  that  all  was  over  between  them,  so  as  to  agreea- 
bly surprise  his  daughter.  "Be  so  good  as  to  remain 
quiet,"  said  he  to  Sir  Charles  Hotham,  "until  I  go  to  the 
city.  I  should  like  to  go  before  you  and  ask  my  daugh- 
ter's consent." 

The  chevalier  demanded  nothing  better  than  to  re- 
main quiet,  for  he  "was  not  accustomed  to  this  vivaci- 
ty." He  could  not  believe  his  ears  nor  his  eyes,  and 
was  exceedingly  embarrassed,  for  his  mission  was  to 
negotiate  for  the  double  marriage.  It  is  true,  the  Court 
of  England,  "in  consideration  of  the  delicate  condition 
of  the  Queen  of  Prussia,"  permitted  him  to  agree  to  the 
one  marriage  immediately,  but  with  the  understanding 
that  there  should  be  a  promise  made  between  the  Crown 
Prince  of  Prussia  and  the  Princess  Amelia.  This  latter 
clause  in  the  mission,  Sir  Charles  was  to  gently  insin- 
uate, not  on  his  immediate  arrival,  but  in  his  own 
time  and  choosing  his  own  hour.  He  did  not  foresee 
this  abrupt  toast  at  the  dinner.  And  now,  where  to 
find  the  means,  since  it  had  begun,  of  slipping  in  a  re- 
striction, of  stopping  this  knee-embracing  procession 
toward  His  Majesty,  of  throwing  cold  water  upon  this 
sarabande?  The  chevalier  would  have  been  even  more 
restless,  had  he  heard  Grumbkow  at  dinner,  after  the 
first  question:  "Must  we  congratulate  you,  Sire?"  And, 
in  an  undertone:  "And  offer  congratulations  for  both 
marriages,  Sire?"     And  the  king's  response:   "No."155 


204  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

The  next  clay  Sir  Charles  Hotham  was  called  to  a  con- 
ference of  ministers,  who  asked  him  at  once  if  he  had 
full  power  to  regulate  the  dot  and  the  contract.  Decid- 
edly, he  found  that  they  were  going  quickly  to  work. 
He  began  by  stating  that  he  must,  first  of  all,  touch  on 
the  conversation  exchanged  between  His  Majesty  and 
himself  in  written  words,  and  transmit  it  to  his  court. 
At  the  same  time,  he  would  write  for  his  king's  permis- 
sion to  treat  directly  upon  the  subject. 

This  was  enough  to  give  the  adverse  faction,  which 
had  been  at  first  unarmed,  new  courage.  It  had  dreaded 
beforehand  this  mission  extraordinary,  and  tried  hard  to 
prevent  its  effects.  Grumbkow  had  written  to  Reichen- 
bach,  in  order  to  dictate  to  him  the  tone  and  matter  of 
his  correspondence.  Reichenbach  must  not  fail  to  give 
notice  at  London,  the  report  that  the  King  of  Prussia 
was  working  to  gain  some  profit  from  England,  through 
the  ministers  at  Berlin  and  through  other  "secret 
means."  This  "  secret  means"  referred  to  the  queen's 
faction,  the  queen  herself  and  her  children.  To  the 
end  that  his  accomplice  should  appear  well-informed, 
Grumbkow  gave  him  information  about  "things  in 
Berlin."  "The  king,"  he  said,  "will  take  you  for  a 
sorcerer,  and  double  the  good  opinion  he  has  of  you." 
Among  other  pieces  of  news,  he  related  this:  "The 
mother  of  the  Crown  Prince  is  always  pretending  to  be 
very  sick,  but  if  affairs  were  adjusted  that  is  to  say, 
the  marriage  concluded,  you  would  see  her  on  her  feet 
again."  He  promised  Reichenbach,  in  order  to  reassure 
him  against  the  dangers  of  the  game,  that  the  king 
would  never  abandon  him.     The  king,  it  is  true,  might 


FATHER   AND    SON.  205 

die,  and  the  Crown  Prince  would  not  fail  to  avenge 
himself  on  his  enemies,  but  this  event  was  foreseen: 
"If  the  Crown  Prince  comes  to  the  throne,  you  will 
be  provided  for  at  Vienna,"  said  he  to  Reichenbach. 
Grumbkow  had  also  arranged  for  his  own  retreat 
to  Vienna.  Should  danger  threaten,  the  "Imperial 
clique"  at  the  Court  of  Berlin  could  defile  into 
Austria. 

Reichenbach  followed  Grumbkow's  instruction  to  the 
letter.  He  made  known,  one  day,  to  the  King  of  Prus- 
sia the  dissolute  conduct  of  the  Prince  of  Wales,  to 
whom  Wilhelmina  was  destined  ;  this  prince  ruined  his 
health  in  debauchery  with  actresses  and  chorus  girls  of 
the  opera.  Another  time  he  touched  the  most  sensitive 
spot,  in  writing  that  the  Court  of  England  sought  only 
to  make  of  Prussia  a  dependent  province,  and  that, 
"the  marriage  accomplished,  there  would  be  at  Berlin 
a  party  that  would  tie  the  king's  hands."  156 

These  dispatches  had  been  exchanged  before  the  ar- 
rival of  Sir  Charles  Hotham  at  Berlin.  They  did  not 
prevent  the  king  from  receiving  the  envoy  well,  but  they 
certainly  troubled  him.  As  early  as  the  next  day  after 
the  famous  dinner  he  forbade  his  ministers  to  treat  of 
the  double  marriage;  "I  do  not  wish  to  hear  of  the 
double  marriage;  besides,  there  is  no  question  of  it  in  my 
wife's  letter."  As  soon  as  he  knew  that  Sir  Charles  Ho- 
tham was  using  means  for  delay  he  began  to  be  restless, 
realizing  that  his  joy  had  been  premature;  and  he 
interdicted  the  public  discussion  of  this  marriage,  that 
he  himself  had  been  so  prompt  to  publish.  But  the 
news   was  soon  spread  abroad.     The   same  evening  of 


206  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

the  dinner  at  Charlottenburg  it  had  been  carried  to  the 
Palace  of  Berlin  to  the  queen  and  princess:  "I  was 
quietly  occupied  in  my  room  at  a  piece  of  work,"  wrote 
Wilhelmina,  "  while  listening  to  a  reading,  when  one  of 
the  queen's  ladies-in-waiting,  followed  by  numerous  do- 
mestics, interrupted  me,  and,  all  of  them  throwing 
themselves  on  their  knees,  cried  in  my  ears  that  they 
had  come  to  salute  the  Princess  of  Wales.  I  truly 
thought  that  they  had  lost  their  senses.  Then  all 
talked  at  once,  cried,  laughed,  jumped  up  and  down, 
and  surrounded  me.  Then  came  my  sisters,  who  em- 
braced me,  and  offered  their  congratulations."  Wilhel- 
mina went  to  the  queen,  who,  in  her  joy,  called  her 
"My  dear  Princess  of  Wales,"  and  gave  Sonsfeld 
the  title  of  "First  lady-in- waiting  to  my  lady."  If  we 
are  to  believe  Wilhelmina,  she  remained  cold  and  pass- 
ive in  the  midst  of  this  enthusiasm.  She  was  so  little 
moved  by  the  congratulations  that  she  continued  her 
work,  saying:  "Is  it  only  that?"  It  would  have  been 
feigning  sentiments  that  she  did  not  possess  if  she  had 
appeared  to  ignore  the  happiness  so  ardently  desired, 
but  her  joy  was  mixed  with  some  uneasiness.  This  was 
not  the  first  time  that  her  mother  had  called  her  "the 
Princess  of  Wales,"  and  the  disillusion  did  not  fail  to 
appear.  Before  actually  rejoicing,  there  must  be  at 
least,  some  declaration  from  the  king.  Nothing  came 
of  it  the  next  day.  The  day  after,  the  king  was  in  Ber- 
lin, and  "no  mention  was  made  of  what  had  come  to 
pass."157 

However,    Frederick    William,    notwithstanding     he 
wrote    on    the    request  for    an    interview    sent   by   Sir 


FATHER    AND    SON,  207 

Charles  Hotham:  "This  does  not  mean  the  double  mar- 
riage?" consented  to  treat  with  him  in  a  tete-a-tete; 
Hotham  prepared  his  discourse,  and  the  manner  of  intro- 
ducing in  it  the  double  marriage.  He  even  addressed 
the  following  graceful  compliment.  He  knew  that  there 
were  three  kingdoms  in  Great  Britain  that  awaited  her 
with  great  impatience,  but  he  could  assure  the  king  that 
the  Prince  of  Wales'  eagerness  surpassed  all  the  rest.  158 
At  the  outset  all  went  well.  In  a  first  interview  with 
the  king,  at  Potsdam,  the  English  Envoy  inserted  this 
speech,  upon  which  he  had  meditated.  He  began  by 
recalling  the  disposition  of  the  King  of  England  in  the 
argument  upon  the  subject  of  recruiters,  and  the  step 
he  had  taken  at  that  time  "to  send  a  minister  to  treat 
about  an  affair  that  touched  His  Majesty  so  closely." 
Then  he  asked  if  the  king  did  not  feel  inclined  "to 
give  some  return  for  this."  He  delicately  insinuated 
that  upon  the  question  of  "return"  he  was  not  in- 
structed to  speak.  It  was  only  "through  a  flow  of 
affection  and  sincere  attachment  to  his  king  that  made 
him  speak  in  this  manner."  The  king  understood  im- 
mediately what  he  intended  to  insinuate,  and  did  not 
get  angry;  on  the  contrary,  he  smiled,  and  said:  "I 
know  well  enough  what  you  mean  to  say.  I  will  ma- 
turely consider  it.  Provide  yourself  with  full  power  to 
act,  and  open  the  question  at  once;  I  will  give  you  my 
opinion,  and  we  can  negotiate."  He  gave  Sir  Charles 
Hotham  permission  to  come  to  Potsdam  the  days  of  the 
hunt,  and  other  days  when  he  had  orders  from  London. 
He  was  in  a  fine  humor;  when  they  spoke  to  him  of  the 
Emperor  and  Seckendorff  he  laughed  immoderately.     In 


208  FREDERICK   THE    GREAT. 

a  second  intercourse  with  Sir  Charles  Hotham,  he  made 
the  tour  of  Europe,  he  was  still  mocking  the  Emperor, 
and  gave  away  all  his  confidences,  among  which  was 
found  "  things  that  could  not  be  expressed  except  by 
circumlocutions."  Lastly,  he  charged  the  Envoy  to 
notify  the  King  of  England  that  he  did  not  cherish  any 
anger  against  him,  that  he  had  forgotten  everything, 
that  it  was  his  desire  to  be  on  good  terms  with  England, 
and  that  he  had  taken  the  sacrament  with  this  feeling.159 
What  was  now  passing  in  the  king's  mind  ?  That 
which  always  passed  through  it  whenever  any  matter 
presented  itself.  He  wished  to  see  if  he  could  not 
draw  out  of  it  "a  few  shovelfuls  of  sand."  England 
asked  for  his  son;  she  was  very  desirous  that  the  Crown 
Prince  of  Prussia  should  marry  one  of  her  princesses. 
So  be  it !  But  then  she  must  pay  for  this  pleasure,  and 
a  good  price.  "If  they  wish  the  double  marriage,  and 
will  separate  me  from  the  Emperor,  let  them  propose 
something  instead  of  Juliers  and  Berg."160  And,  again, 
he  said  :  "I  hate  my  son,  and  he  hates  me.  It  will  be 
a  good  idea  to  separate  us.  They  can  name  him  Gov- 
ernor of  Hanover  with  his  princess."  This  last  was  a 
happy  thought.  His  son,  Governor  of  Hanover,  neither 
he  nor  his  wife  would  be  near  the  king,  and  the  keep- 
ing of  the  young  couple  would  cost  him  nothing.  The 
Court  of  London,  informed  of  this  latter  intention  of 
the  king,  acceded  to  it  at  once.  It  was  agreed  that  the 
Crown  Prince  of  Prussia  and  his  wife  should  be  in- 
stalled as  the  Governors  of  Hanover;  the  Princess 
Amelia  would  have  no  other  dot  than  this  governorship, 
but  England  did  not  exact  a  dot  for  Wilhelmina.      This 


FATHER    AND    SON.  209 

" without  dot"  must  have  charmed  the  king,  who  did 
not  know  that  England  exacted  at  the  same  time  from 
the  Crown  Prince  the  promise  to  repay  her  some  day  for 
the  expenses  she  would  incur  for  him  in  Hanover. 

Provided  with  his  new  instructions,  Sir  Charles  Ho- 
tham  solicited  an  audience,  which  was  granted  to  him 
on  the  fourth  of  May.  "  He  formally  demanded  of  the 
king  the  hand  of  the  eldest  royal  princess  for  the  Prince 
of  Wales,  and  he  added  that  His  Britannic  Majesty,  as 
well  as  the  English  nation,  desiring  to  unite  more 
closely  with  the  Royal  Prussian  family,  destined  one 
of  their  daughters  for  the  Crown  Prince,  and  the  offer 
was  made  to  name  this  princess  Governor  of  Han- 
over." The  king  appeared  delighted  ;  he  answered 
very  amiably  that  he  would  deliberate  with  his  ministers 
upon  the  new  proposition  made  to  him.  He  deliberated 
in  fact  with  his  ministers  and  with  himself  and  eight 
days  elapsed  before  the  result  was  made  known.  Eight 
days  in  hesitation,  in  battling  with  the  pros  and  cons. 
The  cons,  being  the  perpetual  difficulty  of  taking  a  reso- 
lution :  must  one  unite  with  England  and  France  at  this 
moment,  when  they  are  perhaps  on  the  verge  of  war  with 
the  Emperor?  This  English  Princess,  that  they  wish  to 
marry  to  my  son,  will  be  Queen  of  Prussia  some  day; 
< 'she  will  never  habituate  herself  to  the  simplicity  and 
economy  necessary  in  Prussia;  she  will  spend  money  ex- 
travagantly; on  her  account,  the  army  and  State  will  have 
to  be  diminished,  and  the  House  and  State  will  be  going 
backward  like  a  crab." 161  Another  objection  was  always 
and  eternally,  the  joy  of  the  Crown  Prince:  "I  hate 
my  son,"  said  he.  But  everybody  else  did  not  hate  his 
son.     Hotham,  who  saw  him  at  the  king's  table,  wrote 


210  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

that  he  appeared  crestfallen,  but  it  moved  all  to  see 
him  in  this  state,  for  he  is  charming;  only  good  is 
spoken  of  him:  "If  I  am  not  deceived,  he  will  one 
day  cut  a  very  important  figure."  162  This  important  fig- 
ure the  king  dreaded.  The  cons,  evidently,  were 
stronger  than  the  pros. 

Grumbkow  and  Seckendorff  did  not  abandon  each 
other.  Seckendorff  invited  the  king  to  dine,  and  paid 
him  long  visits.  The  correspondence  between  Grumb- 
kow and  Reichenbach  was  at  fever-heat.  Reichenbach, 
on  learning  of  the  reception  of  Sir  Charles  Hotham,  and 
the  story  of  the  dinner  at  Charlottenburg,  was  "thunder- 
struck." The  English  were  overjoyed,  and  he  was 
obliged  to  receive  their  congratulations  on  the  subject 
of  this  cursed  marriage.  The  King  and  Queen  of 
England  showed  their  contempt  for  him.  The  "big 
coxcomb,  "  (grand petit  maitre)  as  he  called  the  Prince  of 
Wales,  did  not  deign  to  look  at  him,  no  matter  how  low 
he  saluted.  Nevertheless,  he  did  not  lose  courage.  His 
letters  were  full  of  arguments  which  Grumbkow  knew 
well  how  to  make  useful.  Sometimes  he  would  insinuate 
that  the  Hanoverians  were  not  so  solid  for  the  throne  of 
England,  the  king  was  hated  more  and  more  each  day, 
and  the  Prince  of  Wales  less  beloved  by  the  public, 
since  he  affected  the  mannerisms  of  his  father.  Again, 
he  would  dress  up  the  Prince  of  Wales  in  a  fine  garb 
by  relating  the  accounts  of  his  love  affairs.  The 
Princess  Amelia  he  made  out  to  be  an  ambitious,  proud, 
whimsical,  mocking  woman.  "With  the  Prince  of 
Wales,*"  said  he,  "the  Crown  Princess  of  Prussia  will 
have  need  of  all  the  wisdom  of  Solomon.      As  to  Ame- 


FATHER    AND    SON.  211 

lia,  she  will  certainly  displease  the  king."  And  finally, 
he  put  the  most  perfidious  weapons  in  the  hands  of 
Grumbkow  when  he  revealed  the  secret  engagement 
of  Frederick  to  marry  no  one  but  the  Princess  Amelia : 
"For  which  reason,"  added  he,  "the  Queen  of  Eng- 
land is  willing  for  the  single  marriage,  as  she  is  sure  of 
the  future.  .  .  .  Everybody  says  that  His  Majesty 
of  Prussia  is  led  by  the  nose." 

This  confidence  was  worth  its  weight  in  gold;  Grumb- 
kow knew  how  to  use  it  with  scholarly  perfidy.  He 
took  care  not  to  say  that  he  received  this  news  from 
Reichenbach,  whom  Sir  Charles  Hotham  was  then  accus- 
ing of  secret  maneuvers.  In  relating  it  to  the  king,  he 
assured  him  that  it  came  from  one  of  his  spies,  a  friend 
of  Cnyphausen.  In  this  way  he  refined  his  lies,  making 
the  king  believe  that  it  was  through  Cnyphausen  that  he 
was  deceived.  This  was  a  master-stroke.  The  king, 
when  learning  of  hrs  son's  correspondence  with  Eng- 
land, became  furious.  Grumbkow  joyfully  wrote  word 
of  it  to  Reichenbach.  He  did  not  fail  to  paint  up  Wil- 
helmina  for  him  for  the  favor  he  received  in  regard  to 
the  qualities  of  Amelia.  "The  king,"  said  he,  "wishes 
to  get  rid  of  Wilhelmina,  because  she  is  ugly,  thin, 
blotched  and  pimpled."  In  reality,  knowing  his  mas- 
ter, and  confiding  in  the  power  of  his  intrigues,  he  had 
no  uneasiness:  "As  long  as  the  Commander  of  Pots- 
dam (the  king)  lives,  the  Crown  Prince  will  not  marry 
an  English  woman. "  163 

Grumbkow  was  certainly  present  with  the  king  dur- 
ing the  week  of  deliberation,  while,  upon  the  point  of 
deciding,  he  was  struggling  with  his  doubts.     At  last, 


212  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

after  meditating  upon  his  decision,  which  he  had 
changed  two  or  three  times  during  the  forty-eight  hours, 
Frederick  William  made  known,  orally,  his  answer  to 
Sir  Charles  Hotham,  for,  the  English  having  written 
nothing,  he  would  write  nothing.  He  was  ready  to  con- 
clude the  marriage  of  his  daughter  to  the  Prince  of 
Wales,  but  he  renounced,  for  his  son,  the  Hanoverian 
combination;  besides,  he  did  not  desire  to  marry  him 
until  the  conflict  between  England  and  the  Emperor  was 
amicably  arranged,  and  he  reserved  to  himself  the  right 
of  fixing  the  date  of  the  marriage.  He  ended  with  de- 
manding the  guarantee  of  the  succession  to  the  Duchies 
of  Berg  and  Juliers.  He  could  not  actually  believe  that 
these  propositions  would  be  accepted.  Hotham,  in 
transmitting  them  to  his  court,  declared  them  shameful ; 
he  considered  that  all  was  over;  this  was  also  the  opinion 
of  the  French  Minister:  "  The  propositions  from  Lon- 
don have  been  rejected,  those  of  Berlin  will  not  be  ac- 
cepted." Seckendorff  already  had  the  inside  track.  1U 
The  Crown  Prince  restlessly  followed  this  negotiation, 
wherein  his  and  his  sister's  destiny  were  so  concerned. 
As  soon  as  he  heard  that  success  was  doubtful,  he  wrote 
to  Sir  Charles  Hotham,  begging  him  to  be  his  interpreter 
to  the  Court  of  England  ;  to  supplicate  the  Court  for  him, 
to  accept  the  propositions  of  his  father,  no  matter  what 
they  might  be.  He  again  pledged  himself  to  marry  no 
one  but  the  Princess  Amelia:  he  would  die  rather  than 
fail  in  this  promise.  "It  was  then  useless,"  said  he,  <  <to 
insist  upon  the  double  marriage."  The  most  important 
thing  of  all,  was  not  to  break  the  present  negotiation: 
for,  if  that  was  done,  his  father  would  not  fail  to  force 


FATHER    AND    SON.  213 

his  sister  and  himself  to  contract  other  marriages.  Sev- 
eral days  after  this  Frederick  wrote  Sir  Charles  Hotham 
a  second  letter,  more  urgent,  more  beseeching,  than  the 
first.  He  knew  that  the  king  had  been  informed  of  his 
secret  communications  with  the  Court  of  England,  and 
he  was  "expecting  terrible  things."  Already  he  had  been 
treated  "  in  an  unprecedented  manner."  The  king  had 
fully  determined  not  to  consent  to  the  double  marriage. 
The  prince  gave  the  reasons,  at  the  same  time  regret- 
ting that  he  should  have  to  say  things  that  "ought  to 
be  hidden  from  the  whole  world."  "To  speak  frankly, 
the  true  reason  that  the  king  does  not  agree  to  this  mar- 
riage, is  that  he  wishes  to  always  keep  me  in  a  lowly 
position,  and  to  enrage  me  whenever  it  suits  his  fancy." 
The  prince  did  not  desire  to  expose  the  princess  to 
sharing  such  an  existence.  He  thought,  then,  that  it 
would  be  better  to  conclude  only  the  marriage  of  his 
sister,  and  not  to  ask  the  king  for  further  assurances  in 
regard  to  the  other:  "In  any  case,  his  word  would  be 
worth  nothing  ;  let  it  suffice  that  I  reiterate  the  promises 
that  I  have  already  made  to  the  king,  my  uncle.  I  am 
a  person  of  my  word."  165 

Such  letters  movedy  perhaps,  the  hearts  of  the  King 
and  Queen  of  England,  but  the  English  government  was 
not  accustomed  to  act  upon  motives  of  sentiment. 
Response  came  that  the  relations  of  England  with  the 
Emperor  and  the  rights  of  succession  to  the  Duchies  of 
Berg  and  Juliers  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  mar- 
riages, which  ought  to  be  concluded  without  politics; 
and  the  London  Cabinet  still  held  to  the  double  mar- 


214  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

It  was  not  at  Berlin  that  Sir  Charles  Hotham  com- 
municated the  reply  of  his  Court  to  the  King  of  Prussia. 
He  had  followed  Frederick  William  into  Saxony, 
whither  the  king  had  repaired,  to  be  present  at  the 
fetes  of  the  King  of  Poland,  celebrated  at  Muhlberg. 
There,  in  the  midst  of  the  spectacle  of  an  army  of  thirty 
thousand  men,  parading  in  new  uniforms,  and  feigning, 
in  the  smoke  of  powder,  to  take  the  passages  of  the 
river,  feigning,  also,  combats  and  assaults;  in  the  crowd 
of  princes  and  petty  princes,  diplomats,  and  the  curious 
from  all  parts  of  Germany;  in  the  great  splendor  of 
Pantagruelian  repasts,  a  secret  drama  was  being  enacted 
between  the  King  of  Prussia,  the  Crown  Prince  and  the 
English  Ambassador.  Sir  Charles  Hotham  remitted  to 
the  King  of  Prussia  a  written  document  containing  the 
answer  of  his  court.  Through  means  of  writing  the 
king  signified  his  response.  Both  sides  refused  any 
concession.  It  was  then  evident  that  the  negotiation 
was  going  to  be  broken.  Of  these  parleyings,  neither 
the  king  nor  his  son  said  a  word,  but  both  were  thinking 
of  the  same  thing,  and  became  more  and  more  exasper- 
ated with  each  other.  The  prince  felt  more  sensitively 
than  ever  the  shame  of  his  slavery,  during  these  days; 
when  honors  due  his  birth,  were  tendered  him  by 
assembled  Europe. 

Each  successive  fete  was  more  wonderful  than  the 
preceding.  The  last  day,  King  Augustus  gave  a  dinner 
to  his  army.  Thirty  thousand  men  ate  and  drank  at 
two  lines  of  tables;  at  the  extremity  of  each  was  a 
trophy,  composed  of  the  head  of  an  ox,  the  skin  cover- 
ing as   a  drapery   the  roasted  quarters  of   the  animal. 


FATHER    AND    SON.  215 

Between  these  two  files  rode  their  Majesties  of  Prussia 
and  Poland,  and  their  two  sons,  who  were  saluted  by 
hurrahs,  and  caps  thrown  in  the  air.  Then  the  two 
kings  and  the  two  princes  took  their  seats  at  a  table  in 
full  view  of  all  this  great  festivity.  At  their  Majes- 
ties' dessert  appeared  the  marvel  of  the  day.  A  tent, 
guarded  by  cadets,  dropped  its  canvas,  and  a  cake  was 
seen,  fourteen  ells  long  and  six  wide,  which  had  re- 
quired six  hundred  eggs,  three  tons  of  milk,  a  ton  of 
butter,  etc.,  etc.  At  a  given  signal  from  the  master 
architect  of  his  Polish  Majesty,  a  carpenter,  armed  with 
a  gigantic  knife,  the  handle  of  which  rested  on  his 
shoulder,  made  an  incision  in  the  sides  of  this  monster. 
The  distribution  of  the  cake  by  the  king  to  the  tables 
of  the  princes  and  the  guests  ended  the  feast.  Then  the 
colonels  and  officers  of  each  regiment,  preceded  by  their 
bands  of  music,  swords  bared,  filed  before  their  Majes- 
ties and  the  two  Highnesses.  Each  group  stopped  be- 
fore the  table  ;  to  each  the  king  drank  a  health, 
emptying  a  glass  of  wine,  and  this,  too,  after  drinking 
so  many  others.  The  officers  also  emptied  glasses,  and 
threw  them  in  the  air.  Sixty  pieces  of  heavy  ar- 
tillery accompanied  the  toasts.  166 

This  was  a  strange,  colossal  fantasy,  a  royal  debauch 
of  merriment.  The  Crown  Prince  of  Prussia  presented 
a  sad  appearance  there.  These  spectacles  were  strong 
contrasts  to  his  misery.  Many  glances  were  turned  to- 
ward him,  which  he  attracted  by  his  charming  person- 
ality. He  must  have  thought  that  all  the  princes, 
ambassadors  and  officers  knew  of  his  sad  history,  and 
the    ignominious    life    he  led.        Never    had  the  -king 


216  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

shown  such  ferocious  anger  at  him  as  in  the  camp  at 
Muhlberg.  He  beat  him  unmercifully  one  day,  threw 
him  on  the  ground,  and  dragged  him  by  the  hair. 
Frederick  had  to  appear  at  parade  all  in  disorder.  The 
king  added  to  these  blows  the  most  cruel,  abusive  lan- 
guage; "  If  I  had  been  treated  in  this  way  by  my  father, 
I  would  have  killed  myself,  but  thou  —  thou  submittest 
to  everything  ! "  Finally,  he  went  so  far  as  to  summon 
him  to  renounce  the  throne.  Now,  Frederick  meant  to 
be  king  ;  he  was  even  in  haste  to  become  so.  Since 
the  waiting  was  impossible  to  him  near  his  father,  he 
resolved  to  pass  it  outside  of  the  kingdom.  We  shall 
soon  see  that  he  wished  to  fly  from  Muhlberg,  and  that 
he  charged  with  a  confidential  mission  Captain  Guy 
Dickens,  whom  Sir  Charles  Hotham  was  sending  to 
London  with  the  reply  of  the  King  of  Prussia  to  the 
response  from  England.  167 

On  leaving  Muhlberg  to  return  to  Berlin,  where  the 
king  and  the  prince  arrived  July  2nd,  Sir  Charles  Ho- 
tham received,  through  Guy  Dickens,  new  instructions. 
This  messenger  had  pleaded  the  cause  of  Wilhelmina 
and  the  Crown  Prince  in  England.  He  had  made  Eng- 
land consider  this  alternative:  either  retard  the  two 
marriages  until  they  could  be  celebrated  at  the  same 
time,  or  conclude  the  marriage  of  the  Prince  of  Wales 
and  Wilhelmina,  and  obtain  a  promise  of  the  other 
from  the  King  of  Prussia.  The  Court  of  London 
made  this  concession,  and  Sir  Charles  Hotham  found 
himself  more  at  ease  in  taking  up  again  the  negotia- 
tions. On  the  9th  of  July  he  had  a  conference  with 
the  king,  which  lasted  four  hours.    At  the  last  accounts 


FATHER   AND    SON.  217 

the  king  declared  that  he  held  it  to  his  honor  to 
marry  his  daughter  to  the  Prince  of  Wales.  As 
for  his  son,  when  the  time  came,  he  would  prefer 
an  English  princess  to  any  other,  and  the  marriage 
would  not  be  delayed  longer  than  ten  years.  In 
speaking  thus,  was  he  sincere?  He  probably  thought 
that  before  ten  years  should  elapse  much  water  would 
pass  under  the  bridges  of  the  Spree.  In  Eng- 
land they  were  not  disposed  to  wait  so  long.  They 
thought  "that  a  promise  of  the  King  of  Prussia  and 
an  egg-puff  were  one  and  the  same  thing,  and  that,  to 
prick  this  prince  with  generosity,  was  like  pricking  an 
old,  jaded  post-horse  already  hardened  to  the  spur."168 
The  new  negotiation  would  probably  not  have  succeeded 
any  better  than  the  preceding  ones,  but  it  was  vio- 
lently interrupted. 

On  the  evening  of  the  9th  of  July,  at  the  tabagie, 
Grumbkow  drew  from  the  king  a  recital  of  the  conversa- 
tion with  Hotham.  He  remarked  to  his  master  that  in 
proposing  the  first  condition  of  the  alternative,  that  is 
to  say,  the  delay  of  the  marriage  of  Wilhelmina,  Eng- 
land wished  to  see  "if,  in  the  concourse  of  general 
affairs,  they  would  have  need  of  him,  or,  in  the  event 
of  his  becoming  useless,  they  would  beg  to  be  excused." 
The  king  was  always  ready  to  accept  insinuations  of 
this  kind.  His  defiance  had  no  need  of  being  awak- 
ened :  it  never  slept.  He  must  have  been  in  a  good 
frame  of  mind  when  he  received  Sir  Charles  Hotham 
the  next  day. 

This  was  a  farewell  audience.  The  Envoy  Extraor- 
dinary was  on  the  eve  of  departing,  and  was  to  present 


218  FREDERICK   THE    GREAT. 

to  the  king  Guy  Dickens,  who  was  the  appointed  Min- 
ister of  England  to  Berlin.  He  resolved  to  terminate 
his  mission  with  a  master-stroke.  For  some  time  the 
English  Minister  had  known  of  the  secret  correspond- 
ence between  Grumbkow  and  Reichenbach,  as  he  had  the 
seals  broken  and  the  letters  read  in  a  postoffice.  He  had 
already  revealed  it  to  the  king  through  allusions,  but 
this  prince  let  the  matter  drop;  the  minister  had  even 
passed  over  to  Frederick  William  copies  of  these  letters, 
of  which  he  never  heard  again.  Grumbkow,  of  course, 
denied  the  authenticity  of  the  correspondence;  but  he 
wrote  to  Reichenbach  that  he  earnestly  hoped  that  all 
his  letters  had  been  burned,  like  the  ones  that  he  had 
received  from  his  accomplice.  Hotham,  deciding  to 
expose  him,  asked  from  England  an  original  letter  of 
Grumbkow's,  and  Guy  Dickens  brought  it  with  him : 
this  is  the  one  about  which  we  are  to  speak.  The  docu- 
ment was  conclusive,  since  it  proved  the  existence  of 
anterior  correspondence.  Hotham  placed  it  in  his 
pocket  before  going  to  the  king.  He  was  received, 
together  with  Guy  Dickens,  at  noon  on  the  10th  of 
July.  After  the  presentation  of  the  new  Minister  and 
the  delivery  of  his  credentials,  they  talked  of  indiffer- 
ent things  for  a  quarter  of  an  hour.  Hotham,  judging 
the  king  to  be  in  a  good  humor,  said:  "As  General 
Grumbkow  has  denied  being  the  author  of  the  letters 
that  I  have  presented  to  Your  Majesty,  I  have  the 
order  from  the  king,  my  master,  to  give  into  the  hands 
of  Your  Majesty  one  of  the  original  letters  of  the  Gen- 
eral." He  held  out  the  letter;  the  king  took  it,  cast 
his  eyes  over  it,  recognized  Grumbkow's  handwriting, 


FATHER    AND    SON.  219 

and  angrily  said :  "Gentlemen,  I  have  had  enough  of 
this."  He  turned  his  back,  threw  the  letter  on  the 
floor,  and  left  the  room,  closing  the  door  behind  him 
with  great  violence.  Sir  Charles  Hotham,  astounded, 
picked  up  the  letter,  and  retired.169 

On  his  immediate  return  to  his  lodging,  he  wrote  to 
the  king  to  say  that,  with  the  deepest  regret,  after 
what  had  passed  during  the  audience,  he  was  reduced  to 
making  known  to  His  Majesty  the  necessity  of  sending 
a  courier  to  London  to  notify  his  court  of  the  surpris- 
ing circumstance.  He  begged  His  Majesty  to  give  the 
necessary  orders  to  deliver  the  post-horses  to  the  said 
courier  and  himself.  Two  hours  after,  Minister  Borcke 
was  with  Hotham.  He  expressed  his  grief  at  the 
unforeseen  incident,  begged  him  to  be  calm  and  pa- 
tient, promising  to  arrange  things.  Hotham  replied 
that,  after  the  insult  offered  to  the  king,  his  master,  he 
could  no  longer  receive  any  communication  from  His 
Prussian  Majesty.  Had  he  alone  been  in  question,  the 
adjustment  could  be  quickly  settled,  but,  as  he  had 
only  acted  in  conformity  to  his  master's  orders,  it 
was  for  His  Britannic  Majesty  to  decide  what  satisfac- 
tion he  should  claim  for  the  injury  received. 

The  king  repented  of  the  wanton  insult  that  escaped 
him.  It  appears  that  he  naively  said:  "It  was  an 
attack  of  the  spleen.  I  was  in  a  bad  humor,  and  when 
it  takes  hold  of  me,  nature  must  find  some  relief." 
He  probably  added:  "If  this  had  been  a  letter  from 
the  King  of  England,  they  might  naturally  have  be- 
come angry;  but  only  a  letter  from  a  rascal  like 
Grumbkow,  what  could  be  said  ?     Am  I  not  the  mas- 


220  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

ter,  to  do  what  I  will  ?  The  English  are  very  quick  to 
anger.  "17° 

< 'To  be  the  master,"  and,  "to  do  what  I  will," 
means:  I  know  better  than  you  that  Grumbkow  is  a 
knave;  the  original  letter  would  have  taught  me  nothing 
if  I  had  read  it;  but  I  have  a  right  to  have  ministers 
that  please  me.  And,  suppose  it  is  agreeable  to  me  to 
be  deceived? — He  is  sure  that  Sir  Charles  Hotham 
made  a  departure  from  diplomatic  conventionality,  in 
attacking,  as  he  had  done,  a  minister  of  the  Crown  of 
Prussia,  but  the  question  referred  to  a  family  affair — 
to  this  marriage,  that  treason  thwarted.  Sir  Charles 
believed  that  he  could  unmask  the  traitor.  At  any 
rate,  the  king,  if  he  was  trying  to  show  the  incongruity 
of  the  step,  certainly  took  a  very  strange  way  to  do  so. 
He  felt  it  acutely:  he  had  realized  it  as  soon  as  he  had 
closed  the  door:  it  was  for  this  reason  that  he  imme- 
diately sent  Borcke  to  the  English  diplomat.  When 
his  Minister  returned,  without  having  obtained  any 
concession,  he  commanded  him  to  make  another  effort; 
Borcke  expressed  again  by  letter  regrets  at  what  had 
happened,  and,  in  behalf  of  the  king,  invited  Sir 
Charles  Hotham  to  dine  next  day.  Always  the  same 
answer:    impossible  to  reappear  at  the  court. 

The  next  day  new  schemes  were  laid  on  all  sides  to 
detain  Sir  Charles.  It  was  useless.  He  departed  July 
12th,  leaving  the  Queen,  the  Crown  Prince  and  Wilhel- 
mina  disconsolate. 

On  learning  of  the  departure  of  the  chevalier,  Fred- 
erick thought  that  it  would  not  be  long  ere  he  saw  him 
again  in  England. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

THE    ATTEMPT    AT    ESCAPE THE    FLIGHT    AND    ARKEST. 

For  some  time,  three  or  four  years,  perhaps,  Freder- 
ick had  been  contemplating  flight.  He  dreamed  of 
fleeing  on  horseback  or  by  post,  to  the  noise  of  whip 
and  horses'  hoofs;  to  leave  behind  him  leagues,  and  Ger- 
man leagues  at  that,  to  arrive  on  the  French  frontier,  to 
sojourn  awhile  in  the  country  which  was  the  fatherland 
of  his  mind,  and  then  to  go  and  take  refuge  with  his 
English  relatives.  It  was  not  his  betrothed  who  at- 
tracted him;  he  did  not  know  her,  and  was  not  a  love- 
dreamer.  If  the  Princess  Amelia  came  to  his  thoughts 
sometimes,  it  was  to  add  a  romantic  color  to  his 
schemes,  for  there  was  romance,  although  in  a  very 
juvenile  state,  in  the  prince's  projects.  But  it  was  for 
liberty  that  he  thirsted,  liberty  to  go  and  come,  to  get 
up  and  go  to  bed,  to  re'ad,  write,  and  think,  to  play  the 
flute, — to   live,  in  fact,  according  to  his  nature. 

He  appears  to  have  had  his  first  positive  conference 
with  Keith,  during  the  winter  of  1729;  but,  the  put- 
ting into  execution  of  his  designs  is  reduced  to  the 
order  for  a  carriage  given  at  Leipsic  by  a  lieutenant 
named  Von  Spaen.  Katte  afterward  received  Freder- 
ick's confidence.171 

Katte  had  qualities  calculated  to  please  the  prince. 
He  loved  mathematics,  mechanics  and  music;  he  knew 


222  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

how  to  draw  and  paint;  he  was  a  great  reader,  played 
on  the  flute,  and  wrote  French  well ;  he  loved  to  talk 
and  discourse.  Of  his  century,  of  that  century  in 
which  Frederick  William  was  a  stranger  and  a  ghost, 
he  had  free  morals,  "  sentimentality,"  a  lack  of  re- 
ligion; and  with  that  he  was  a  little  paradoxical. 
A  fatalist  and  an  ambitious  person,  he  believed  he  was 
called  to  a  high  destiny.  He  was  the  son  of  a  general, 
grandson  of  a  marshal,  and  friend  of  the  Crown  Prince; 
this  friendship  would  open  to  him  the  future.  He  had 
for  the  prince  that  sentiment  of  tender  respect,  and 
affection  at  the"  same  time  mystic  and  interested,  that 
the  heirs  to  the  crown  inspire  in  those  that  they  design 
to  be  their  chosen  servitors.  He  enjoyed  the  Crown 
Prince's  graciousness,  the  charm  of  his  mind  and  per- 
son. Frederick's  misfortunes  moved  him;  he  was  also 
touched  at  the  unhappy  fate  of  Wilhelmina;  he  had 
copied  the  portrait  of  the  princess,  of  whom  he  would 
have  been,  if  she  had  permitted  it,  the  very  humble 
servitor  and  knight.  To  the  Crown  Prince  he  could 
refuse  nothing,  not  even  the  peril  of  his  life. 

In  the  camp  of  Muhlberg  Frederick  addressed  the 
first  precise  requisitions  to  the  friendship  of  Lieu- 
tenant Katte.  During  the  entire  stay  there  he  nego- 
tiated in  regard  to  his  flight,  in  his  secret  conversations 
with  him  and  Guy  Dickens.  Katte  was,  from  the  first, 
frightened  at  the  project.  The  prince  urged  it,  and 
wished  to  leave  immediately;  he  asked  Count  Hoym, 
Minister  of  the  Elector  of  Saxony,  one  day,  for  some 
post-horses  for  two  young  officers  who  wished  to  make, 
incognito,  a  journey  to   Leipsic.     The  ruse  was  artless, 


THE    ATTEMPT    AT    ESCAPE.  223 

for  everybody  had  a  presentiment  of  the  Crown 
Prince's  schemes.  Hoym  knew  well  enough  what  sig- 
nified this  incognito,  and  refused  the  relays.  Katte 
himself  begged  him  to  make  it  difficult;  although  he 
acceded  to  the  prince's  wishes,  since  he  procured  a  map 
of  the  route  between  Leipsic  and  Frankfort-on-the- 
Main,  at  a  postoffice.  These  proceedings  did  not  pass 
unnoticed.  Colonel  Rochow,  the  guardian  of  the 
prince,  the  daily  witness  of  his  sufferings  and  anger, 
had  his  suspicions,  that  he  made  known  to  the  lieuten- 
ant, who  denied  all  bad  intentions.  Frederick  decided 
to  delay  the  execution  of  his  plans,  but  to  hold  himself 
in  readiness. 

He  forthwith  announced,  in  a  private  interview  with 
Guy  Dickens  in  his  tent,  that  he  would  escape  during 
a  trip  his  father  intended  to  make  soon  to  Anspach, 
and  through  Western  Germany;  he  would  go  to  France, 
pass  six  or  eight  weeks  in  Paris,  and  from  there  go  on 
to  England.  He  did  not  admit  that  he  was  going 
to  Paris,  for  the  pleasure  of  going  to  see  the  city, 
and  meet  Gresset  or  Voltaire:  "I  prefer  to  go  into 
France  first,"  said  he  to  Guy  Dickens,  ''and  remain 
there  awhile.  If  I  should  go  immediately  to  London, 
the  king  would  think  that  my  mother  knew  of  my  plan, 
and  treat  her  cruelly."  He  added,  with  all  the  confi- 
dence of  a  young  conspirator,  "that  everything  was  in 
readiness,"  and  prayed  the  Court  of  London  to  do  what 
was  necessary  in  France,  "that  he  might  find  there  aid 
and  protection."172  Katte,  who  was  aware  of  this  inter- 
course, offered  to  go  to  Anspach,  there  to  await  him  at 
the  gates  of  the  city  with  horses,  or  to  dress  himself  as 


224  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

a  postillion,  and  serve  the  prince  in  that  way  (which  was 
pure  folly),  until  the  propitious  hour  arrived. 

However,  the  camp  of  Saxony  had  broken  up.  The 
Court  returned  to  Berlin,  and  awaited  the  coming  of 
Guy  Dickens,  who  had  left,  as  we  remember,  for  Eng- 
land, and  who  had  brought  back  on  the  9th  of  July,  at 
the  same  time  with  the  new  propositions  of  his  court 
on  the  subject  of  the  marriages,  an  answer  to  the  confi- 
dences of  Frederick. 

His  Britannic  Majesty  gave  to  His  Highness  the 
strongest  assurances  of  his  compassion  and  sincere  de- 
sire to  rescue  him  from  this  state,  but  he  believed  that 
the  situation  of  the  affairs  of  Europe,  in  this  critical 
moment,  were  not  in  a  suitable  condition  for  the  execu- 
tion of  His  Highness'  design.  He  advised  him  to  de- 
fer it  a  little  while,  to  await  at  least  the  results  of  the 
new  negotiations  in  which  Sir  Charles  Hotham  was  then 
engaged.  Besides,  the  time  had  passed  when  they  could 
gain  information  as  to  the  welcome  reserved  for  the 
prince  "  if  he  retired  to  that  country.  .  .  ."  This 
answer  was  written  in  a  kind  of  official  instruction;  it 
was  evident  the  Court  of  England  treated  Frederick  as 
a  sovereign  ;  her  Envoy  was  given  as  much  authority  to 
negotiate  with  the  son  as  with  the  father.  Guy  Dick- 
ens was  also  commissioned  to  offer  a  bribe  to  the  prince. 
It  was  proposed  to  pay  his  debts,  but  on  condition  that 
he  would  give  the  promise  not  to  attempt  flight. 

The  same  evening  of  his  arrival  in  Berlin  Guy  Dick- 
ens received  the  visit  of  Katte,  who  led  him  under  the 
portals  of  the  palace,  where  the  prince  came  to  join 
them.     The  Envoy  fulfilled  his  mission:  Frederick  ac- 


THE    ATTEMPT    AT    ESCAPE.  225 

cepted  the  offer  to  pay  his  debts,  and  even,  as  he  had  a 
remarkable  presence  of  mind,  asked  for  15,000  thalers, 
although  he  owed  but  7,000,  and  did  not  commit  him- 
self into  promising  that  he  would  renounce  his  project; 
he  only  gave  his  word  not  to  fly  from  Potsdam  if  his 
father  left  him  there. 

During  this  night  interview  Katte  kept  watch.  All 
this  was  very  romantic,  but  of  a  childlike  imprudence. 

Two  or  three  days  after,  the  king  departed  for  Pots- 
dam. The  prince  learned  that,  after  much  hesitation, 
his  father  had  decided  to  take  him  wTith  him  on  the 
journey.  The  14th  of  July,  the  day  before  the  depart- 
ure, he  wTrote  to  Katte  at  Potsdam.  Katte  went  to  him 
in  the  evening,  without  permission,  of  course,  and  it 
was  necessary  to  beg  the  officer  who  was  on  guard  at 
the  gate  not  to  signal  his  passing  through.  He  found 
the  prince  in  the  park. 

They  talked  for  two  hours.  Frederick  repeated  all 
his  reasons  for  flight ;  he  had  just  been  maltreated 
there,  and  so  rudely  that  he  ended  with  fearing  for  his 
life.  Katte  demurred  somewhat,  but  promised  to  fol- 
low him.  Only,  he  could  not  leave  immediately;  he 
had  to  await  the  permission  that  he  had  solicited  to 
go  recruiting.  He  advised  the  prince  to  put  off  his 
flight  until  the  end  of  the  journey:  the  king  had  to 
enter  his  Estates  through  Wesel ;  from  there  it  would 
be  easy  to  reach  Holland.  The  two  accomplices  thus 
established  their  project  upon  an  hypothesis,  since  it 
was  uncertain  that  Katte  could  obtain  the  requested 
leave  of  absence.  They  had  arranged  nothing  definite- 
ly   when  they  separated  .at  midnight.     They  had  agreed 


226  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

to  correspond, —  this  was  a  new  imprudence, —  through 
the  medium  of  one  of  Katte' s  cousins,  Mittmeister  Katte, 
who  was  on  a  tour  of  recruiting  at  Erlangen,  within 
easy  distance  of  Anspach. 

The  next  day,  15th  of  July,  the  prince,  before  setting 
out,  wrote  to  Katte,  to  confirm  his  resolution  of  flying 
at  the  beginning  of  the  journey.  He  arranged  to  meet 
him  at  Cannstatt,  without  even  knowing  if  the  lieuten- 
ant could  be  there  at  the  same  time  as  he.  The  page 
who  took  charge  of  this  letter  also  gave  Katte  some 
things  that  the  prince  did  not  wish  to  leave  behind 
him,  among  which  was  the  musicalia.  Katte  had  al- 
ready in  his  possession  Frederick's  jewels  and  the  in- 
signia of  the  Order  of  the  White  Eagle  of  Poland,  the 
diamonds  of  which  had  been  sold  and  replaced  by 
false  stones.  The  prince  had  confided  to  him  the  money 
for  the  journey,  amounting  to  about  3,000  thalers. 

On  the  morning  of  this  15th  of  July  the  king  took 
leave  of  the  queen  very  tenderly.  He  expressed  his  regret 
at  the  "foolish  way"  he  had  acted  toward  Sir  Charles 
Hotham,  and  his  desire  for  the  double  marriage,  with 
this  ugly  restriction:  "But  my  son  shows  too  much 
anxiety  to  get  married ;  while  he  does  that,  I  will  make 
him  wait.  I  mean  that  he  shall  have  no  other  will  but 
mine."  He  even  acknowledged  that  he  had  been  "the 
dupe"  of  Seckendorff.  "You  are  commencing  to  talk 
more  reasonably,"  said  the  queen;  "but  just  as  soon  as 
you  see  the  bell-tower  on  Count  Seckendorff's  estate, 
where  you  are  going  first,  you  will  think  differently, 
and  on  your  return  from  your  journey  you  will  become 
more  enraged  than  ever  at  your  family  and  at  me,  and 


THE  ATTEMPT  AT  ESCAPE.  227 

make  us  suffer,  as  usual."  The  king  replied:  "No,  I 
promise  you  !  I  love  you  too  much,  my  dear  wife.  Em- 
brace me."173  Neither  one  nor  the  other  had  any  idea 
what  that  return  would  be.  Nevertheless,  the  prince's 
projects  were  suspected.  It  was  said  that  he  was  going 
to  take  this  opportunity  "to  shake  the  dust  from  his 
feet."  The  king  gave  the  order  that  Colonel  Rochow, 
General  Buddenbrock  and  Colonel  Waldow  should  not 
leave  the  carriage  of  his  son.  He,  no  doubt,  took  him 
on  this  journey  so  as  to  watch  him  more  closely. 

The  first  night  was  passed  at  Meuselwitz,  Count 
Seckendorff's  estate,  where  the  king  remained  the  two 
following  days.  The  18th  he  continued  his  route,  tak- 
ing the  Count  with  him.  The  21st  he  arrived  at  his 
son-in-law's,  the  Margrave  of  Anspach,  where  he  so- 
journed about  a  week,  "to  regulate  the  economy"  of 
the  young  household.  The  23d,  at  midnight,  a  letter 
from  Katte  was  brought  to  the  prince  by  the  cousin, 
the  Rittmeister.  Bad  news:  they  had  refused  the  lieu- 
tenant permission  to  travel.  The  prince  burned  the 
letter,  and  his  response  was  for  Kafte  to  remain  quiet 
until  he  received  fresh  orders.  Now  he  wished  to 
assure  himself  of  another  accomplice,  and  put  the  propo- 
sition to  the  Rittmeister,  but  he  refused,  and  went  so  far 
as  to  warn  Rochow,  (but  without  revealing  anything  to 
him)  not  to  lose  sight  of  his  "  High  Subordinate"  for  an 
instant.  To  whom  could  he  apply?  Among  the  king's 
pages  was  a  younger  brother  of  Keith's,  the  friend 
who  was  at  Wesel.  The  prince  confided  in  him,  slipped 
notes  into  his  hand,  and  carried  on  the  following  in- 
tercourse secretly:  "Can  horses  be  found  anywhere?" — 


228  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

"In  some  places  they  are  to  be  found  ;  in  others  not." — 
"  Are  you  obliged  to  always  stay  near  the  king's  car- 
riage? Can  you  manage  to  be  half  a  league  behind  or 
in  front?" — "I  must  always  remain  near  at  hand,  for 
the  king,  when  he  descends,  asks  after  all  those  that 
belong  to  his  retinue." — "Order  horses  for  me." — 
"Where  does  His  Highness  wish  to  go  ?  " — "Where  do 
you  think  1  will  go?  " — "  I  do  not  know." — "  If  I  once 
go  away  I  will  never  return." 

Believing  himself  to  be  sure  of  a  companion,  Freder- 
ick wrote  to  Katte,  the  29th  of  July,  that  he  was  mis- 
treated for  having  dropped  hrs  knife.  He  commanded 
him  to  go  to  the  Hague  and  look  for  a  Count  Alberville, 
the  fictitious  name  under  which  he  wished  to  hide 
his  identity.  In  this  letter  another  was  enclosed,  which 
Katte  must  leave  so  that  it  could  be  read.  The  prince 
therein  deduced  his  reasons  for  his  flight;  he  was  too 
badly  treated,  and  could  support  this  existence  no 
longer;  the  sojourn  at  Wusterhausen,  said  he,  will  be 
still  worse  than  the  preceding  years.  It  was  at  this 
house  of  ennui,  sermons  and  terror  that  the  prince  had 
been  disgusted  with  life.  He  swore  that  he  would 
never  go  there  again.  At  the  same  moment  he  wrote 
to  Keith  to  leave  Wesel  and  go  to  Holland. 

From  Anspach  the  king  took  the  route  to  Wurtem- 
berg.  The  Ducal  Court  awaited  him  at  Ludwigsburg. 
On  arriving  Frederick  prepared  for  flight,  as  if  for  a 
love  venture,  enveloping  himself  in  a  red  mantle,  which 
he  had  had  made  some  days  before;  he  had  ordered  Keith 
to  buy  a  blue  one.  On  the  morning  of  the  fourth  of 
August,  as  he  was  leaving  Ludwigsburg,  he  put  on  his 


THE    ATTEMPT    AT    ESCAPE.  229 

fine,  new  mantle;  "this,"  said  Rochow  to  him,  "is  a 
garment  that  will  not  please  the  king."  He  replied 
that  he  wore  the  mantle  on  account  of  the  cold  (which 
did  not  explain  the  color),  and  then  he  took  it  off.  The 
hour  appointed  by  him  was  close  at  hand.  This  same 
day,  at  Heilbronn,  the  cortege  of  carriages  left  the  val- 
ley of  the  Neckar  and  took  the  direction  of  Mannheim, 
where  the  Elector  Palatine  awaited  the  King  of  Prussia. 
The  prince,  who  had  maps,  and  informed  himself,  as  if 
through  curiosity,  of  the  halting-places,  thought  that 
they  would  stay  over  night  at  Sinsheim,  and  from  there 
he  resolved  to  fly.  But,  by  chance,  the  king  wished  to 
stop  at  Steinsfurth,  where  it  was  agreed  to  pass  the 
night  in  some  barns:  the  prince  was  lodged  opposite  the 
king.  "We  are  not  so  far  from  Mannheim,"  said  the 
king,  on  retiring.  "On  leaving  here  at  five  o'clock  in 
the  morning,  we  will  have  ample  time  to  reach  it." 
The  prince,  who  had  given  his  orders  to  Keith,  thought 
that  it  would  be  a  long  time  until  that  hour. 

At  half-past  two  o'clock  he  dressed  himself.  His 
valet  de  chambre,  Gummersbach,  Rochow's  man  of  con- 
fidence, was  astonished.  "I  wish  only  to  get  up,"  said 
the  prince.  "What's  that  to  you?"  He  put  on  his 
red  mantle.  Gummersbach  made  some  observations : 
"I  wish  to  put  it  on,"  replied  the  prince,  who  added, 
"that  he  was  going  to  the  king,"  and  went  out,  not- 
withstanding that  the  valet  said:  "the  king  is  not  to 
be  awakened  until  the  departure  at  five  o'clock."  He 
stationed  himself  before  the  barn;  however,  Gummers- 
bach sent  a  chasseur  to  call  the  colonel.  Rochow,  who 
retired    dressed,   came  instantly;    he  found    the  prince 


230  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

waiting  near  his  carriage:  "  Good  morning,  Your  High- 
ness," said  he.  The  prince  returned  his  greeting,  left 
the  carriage,  and  re-entered  the  barn.  Rochow  walked 
up  and  down  before  the  door  with  Gummersbach.  At 
three  o'clock  Keith,  who  was  late,  arrived  with  horses. 
"  You  see,"  said  Gummersbach  to  the  colonel,  "what 
it  means  by  these  horses  being  here.  I  will  guard  the 
prince."  Rochow  went  toward  Keith,  wished  him  good 
morning,  and  asked  him  what  he  intended  to  do  with 
the  horses.  "They  are  the  pages'  horses,"  said  Keith. 
"Go  to  the  devil  with  your  horses,"  cried  the  colonel. 
Buddenbrock  and  Waldow,  also  notified,  came  out  to 
join  Rochow.  Seckendorff,  who  always  slept  with  one 
eye  open,  appeared  in  the  street.  The  prince  had 
started  out  again,  and  the  dawning  day  lighted  up  his 
red  mantle:  "  Excellency,"  said  Rochow  to  the  Austrian, 
"how  do  you  like  the  prince's  attire?"  The  prince 
took  off  his  mantle,  and,  in  despair,  went  to  his  father's 
resting-place.  The  king  had  not  yet  risen.  "Your 
carriage,"  said  the  king,  "is  heavier  than  mine.  You 
go  on  before;  otherwise  you  will  arrive  late."  The 
prince  left  the  room  while  his  father  was  dressing,  and 
went  to  drink  his  tea,  lingering  as  long  as  he  could, 
doing  it  so  well  that  the  king,  who  thought  him  already 
en  route,  left  him  behind.  When  he  arrived  at 
Heidelberg  he  was  astonished  not  to  find  the  prince 
there.  "Where  is  my  son?  He  must  have  gone  very 
fast.  They  could  not,  however,  have  been  foolish 
enough  to  enter  Mannheim  before  my  arrival."  At  eight 
o'clock  the  king  was  at  Mannheim;  still  no  prince.  The 
king  became  uneasy;  he  imagined    that  Frederick  had 


THE    ATTEMPT    AT    ESCAPE.  231 

succeeded  in  escaping.  To  calm  him,  the  Elector  Pala- 
tine sent  his  equerry  along  the  route  to  Heidelberg.  At 
last  the  tardy  prince  and  his  attendants  arrived  at  half- 
past  ten.174 

It  was  evident  that  Frederick  could  not  escape,  but 
the  resolution  that  he  had  taken  to  risk  all  rather  than 
abandon  this  beautiful  dream,  made  him  blind.  Again 
he  gave  the  command  to  Keith  to  order  horses,  but  the 
page  had  had  a  good  scare  that  morning,  in  receiving 
the  ironical  salute  of  Rochow.  He  knew  the  king,  and 
felt  his  head  totter  on  his  shoulders.  The  6th  of 
August,  which  was  Sunday,  after  divine  service,  Keith 
threw  himself  at  his  master's  feet  and  acknowledged 
the  whole  plot. 

The  king  controlled  the  tempest  rising  within  him, 
and  resolved  to  dissimulate  until  he  arrived  in  his  city 
of  Wesel,  but  he  called  Rochow  near  a  window,  and 
said:  " Fritz  wishes  to  desert;  I  am  astonished  that 
nothing  of  it  has  been  told  me.  You,  Rochow,  will 
be  responsible  with  your  head,  if  you  do  not  see  that  he 
reaches  Wesel,  dead  or  alive.  I  have  not  the  time  to  say 
any  more  now.  And,  as  it  happens  that  I  cannot  find 
means  at  present  to  speak  alone  with  Buddenbrock  and 
Waldow,  you  must  tell  them  in  my  name,  and  order  them 
to  be  responsible  to  me."  Rochow,  who  had  the  gener- 
osity not  to  disclose  the  adventure  of  the  day  before,  was 
contented  to  answer:  "He  cannot  escape  us;  he  could 
not  have  escaped  us.  I  have  taken  precautions.  The 
prince  has  a  faithful  valet,  in  whom  we  may  trust." 
Upon  which  they  seated  themselves  at  table.  The  king, 
who   knew   so   little  how  to   restrain  himself,  and  who 


232  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

loved  to  give  vent  to  his  anger,  must  have  endured  the 
torments  of  hell.  The  sight  of  the  French  intendant,  the 
commander  and  officers  of  Landau,  who  came  to  Mann- 
heim, disturbed  him.  He  thought  that  they  had  come 
in  advance  of  the  prince  to  form  his  escort.  That  even- 
ing, at  Darmstadt,  where  they  remained  over  night,  he 
could  not  keep  from  saying  to  his  son:  "I  am  sur- 
prised to  see  you  here.  I  thought  you  were  already  in 
Paris."  Frederick  responded  boldly  by  a  lie:  "If  I 
had  wished  it,  I  could  have  certainly  been  in  France." 
Once  more,  ignorant  that  he  had  been  betrayed,  he 
passed  a  note  to  Keith:  "The  plot  has  taken  an  unfav- 
orable turn.     Arrange  for  our  leaving." 

They  arrived  at  Frankfort  on  the  8th  of  August,  in 
the  morning,  whence  they  were  to  descend  the  Main. 
The  king  visited  all  the  places  of  interest  in  two 
hours,  without  the  companionship  of  the  prince;  he  had 
him  conducted  directly  to  the  boat  which  was  going 
to  transport  the  Royal  party  to  Bonn.  Frederick  Will- 
iam burned  with  impatience  to  return  home,  but  he 
had  promised  a  visit  to  the  Elector  of  Cologne,  who 
was  expecting  him.  He  reached  Bonn  on  the  10th. 
Before  putting  up  there  he  ordered  the  officers  of  the 
prince  to  watch  him  well,  and  bring  him  back  to  the 
boat,  dead  or  alive.  Frederick  heard  these  commands 
and  other  hard  words  spoken  by  his  father  without  a 
frown.  But,  in  his  heart,  he  began  to  be  troubled, 
feeling  himself  already  a  prisoner.  In  his  way,  he  was 
shrewd.  He  guessed  that  all  was  discovered,  and  that 
Seckendorff  was  posted.  He  determined  then  to  draw 
this  enemy  over  to  his  cause,  making  him  think  he  was 


THE    ATTEMPT    AT    ESCAPE.  233 

worthy  of  his  confidence,  and  interesting  the  generosity 
of  a  man  who  was  so  powerful,  near  his  father:  "I 
had,"  said  Frederick  to  Seckendorff,  "the  firm  intention 
of  running  away.  A  prince  eighteen  years  old  can  no 
longer  bear  being  treated  in  this  way  by  the  king, 
and  beaten  as  I  have  been  in  the  Saxony  camp.  In 
spite  of  all  surveillance  (he  repeated  and  completed 
his  lie),  I  could  have  fled,  had  I  not  been  restrained  by 
my  love  for  the  queen  and  my  sister.  I  do  not  renounce 
my  resolution.  If  the  king  does  not  cease  to  strike 
me,  I  will  put  it  into  execution,  no  matter  at  what  cost. 
The  peril  of  my  life  does  not  disturb  me.  Only  I  should 
regret  that  some  officers,  having  knowledge  of  the 
thing,  would  be  exposed  to  danger,  when  they  have  not 
committed  a  fault,  but  have  simply  allowed  themselves 
to  be  inveigled  into  it  by  me.  If  the  king  promises 
pardon  for  them,  I  will  admit  all  frankly.  If  not,  they 
can  cut  off  my  head  before  I  betray  anybody."  Then, 
pushing  his  confidence  a  little  further,  he  added  that 
the  queen  knew  nothing  of  his  projects,  but  he  was 
troubled  about  Katte;  he  hoped,  though,  that  he  would 
save  himself  after  having  destroyed  their  secret  cor- 
respondence. He  terminated  his  discourse  by  request- 
ing Seckendorff  to  have  a  talk  with  the  king:  "You 
cannot  show  me  greater  friendship;  I  will  be  grateful 
to  you  all  my  life  for  drawing  me  out  of  this  di- 
lemma."175 

Seckendorff  had  to  listen  with  an  air  of  respectful 
compassion,  at  the  same  time  hiding  his  pleasure  at 
the  sight  of  so  proud  a  youth  reduced  to  asking  a  favor 
of  him,    knowing    how   reluctantly  he  gave  this  forced 


234  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

confidence.  The  next  day,  at  Mors,  he  spoke  to  the 
king  in  generous  terms  of  the  prince's  repentance.  The 
king  replied  that  he  would  prefer  pardon  to  justice,  if 
his  son  would  make  his  avowals  in  an  open-hearted  man- 
ner, a  thing  he  very  much  doubted ;  but,  at  Geldern, 
he  learned  that  Lieutenant  Keith  had  left  Wesel.  For 
several  days  he  was  aware  that  Katte  had  sent  a  mes- 
sage to  Frederick  during  the  journey.  He  saw  the  cor- 
relation of  the  two  facts  in  the  attempt  at  flight.  In 
haste  to  put  the  prince  in  a  place  of  safe  keeping,  he 
sent  him  on  before  to  Wesel. 

The  king  himself  arrived  there  at  half-past  eight  in 
the  evening.  He  immediately  ordered  the  prince  to 
come  to  the  Commandatur,  and  subjected  him  to  a 
series  of  questions.  The  prince  avowed  that  he  wished 
to  go  into  France,  and  added  the  story  that  he  had 
given  a  rendezvous  at  Strasburg  to  Katte  and  Keith. 
It  is  said  that  the  king,  displeased  with  his  answers, 
became  so  furious  that  General  Von  de  Mosel  threw 
himself  between  father  and  son,  offering  his  chest  to 
the  first  one  of  them  that  would  draw  his  sword.  But 
Frederick  William,  I  think,  was  depressed  and  over- 
whelmed, as  well  as  irritated.  It  is  not  impossible  that 
he  thought  at  the  moment  that  these  acts  of  violence  to- 
ward his  son  would  be  counted  against  him  in  this 
trial  in  which  he  engaged  before  the  eyes  of  all  Eu- 
rope. The  official  act  of  questioning,  on  the  12th  of 
August,  said  that  the  prince  was  summoned  "in  the 
most  solemn  way,  to  honor  as  he  should  God  and  his 
seignior  and  father,  and  to  confess,  according  to  his  duty 
and  conscience,   all  the  circumstances  of  his  projected 


THE  ATTEMPT  AT  ESCAPE.  235 

desertion."  Before  delivering  his  son  over  to  justice, 
Frederick  William  had  to  speak  in  this  judge-like  man- 
ner, and  abide  by  it.  The  prince  then  assumed  the 
position  to  which  he  was  going  to  adhere,  mixing  false- 
hood and  truth  with  extraordinary  coolness;  he  was 
proud,  and  insolent  even,  but  always  cunning,  and 
never  pushing  anything  to  extreme.  It  is  quite  proba- 
ble that  he  may  have  answered  his  father  by  reproach- 
ing him  for  his  acts  of  violence  and  his  irritating 
speeches,  saying  "that  he  should  blame  only  himself 
for  what  had  happened."176 

Afterward  Frederick  was  taken  to  a  room  apart,  and 
guarded  by  sentinels  with  fixed  bayonets.  The  next 
day  he  was  examined  by  Colonel  Derschau,  upon  the 
questions  prepared  by  the  king.  He  answered  by  a 
story.  "He  wished,"  he  said,  "to  go  incognito  to  Lan- 
dau, Strasburg  and  Paris,  to  take  service,  enter  Italy, 
distinguish  himself  by  brilliant  action,  and  obtain  in 
this  way  His  Majesty's  pardon;"  but,  at  the  same  time, 
the  king,  who  sent  an  order  to  follow  Keith,  learned 
that  he  had  gone,  not  to  Strasburg,  but  to  the  Hague. 
The  prince  was  declared  guilty  of  falsehood.  The  king 
had  him  notified  of  this  through  Derschau,  and 
became  more  and  more  troubled  ;  he  went  even  so  far 
as  to  think  that  there  was  a  conspiracy  against  his  life. 
The  prince  was  either  informed  of  or  guessed  these  ter- 
rible suspicions. 

"My  dear  father,"  wrote  he,  "I  take  the  liberty 
of  writing  to  my  dear  father,  to  ask  him  to  recall 
my  arrest,  giving  assurance  that  all  that  I  have 
or  have  had  told  to  my  dear  father  is  true.      As  to 


236  FREDERICK   THE    GREAT. 

the  suspicions  held  against  me,  time  will  show  that 
they  are  groundless,  and  I  affirm  that  I  have  not  had  the 
bad  intention  that  they  accuse  me  of  having.  I  implore 
my  dear  father's  pardon,  and  I  remain,  for  life,  his  most 
respectful,  most  submissive,  and  very  devoted  son."177 

For  answer,  the  king  gave  the  prince  into  the  hands 
of  General  Buddenbrock,  with  the  order  to  conduct 
him  across  Germany,  to  the  Fortress  of  Spandau. 
The  escort  should  evade  the  territories  of  Hesse  and 
Hanover,  suspicious  countries,  where  the  prince  might 
perhaps  find  accomplices.  In  case  of  surprise  or  at- 
tempt at  abduction,  "Buddenbrock  must  arrange  it  so » 
that  the  others  will  receive  him  dead." 

The  prince  was  taken  away  from  Wesel  in  great 
secrecy.  Until  they  reached  Halle  they  were  on  the 
march  day  and  night,  never  halting  except  in  the  open 
country,  in  a  place  "where  they  could  see  all  around 
them,  and  where  there  were  no  bushes  and  hedges;" 
they  ate  in  the  carriage.  The  king,  the  same  day,  set 
forth  again.  A  proof  (it  seems  to  me,  at  least)  of  his 
hesitation,  of  his  disturbed  mind,  of  his  anguish,  a  re- 
coil before  the  fact  to  which  he  gave,  in  petto,  mon- 
strous proportions, — is  that  he  did  not  go  directly  to 
Berlin.  He  traveled  a  week,  and  did  not  arrive  until 
the  26th  of  August  at  the  Royal  Palace. 

THE    EXAMINATION. 

Terror  reigned  in  Berlin  when  they  heard  the  news 
from  Wesel.  The  king,  the  same  day  of  the  arrest, 
wrote  a  letter  to  the  queen,  and  another  to  Madame  de 
Kamken : 


THE    ATTEMPT    AT    ESCAPE.  237 

"My  dear  Madame  de  Kamken,178  I  have  the  misfortune 
to  state  (leider  das  Ungluck )  that  my  son  has  desired  to  desert 
with  the  page,  Keith.  I  have  had  him  arrested.  I  have  writ- 
ten to  my  wife.  She  may  grieve  for  a  few  days.  It  is  for  you 
to  see  that  she  does  not  fall  sick. 

"  I  am  your  devoted  friend, 

"Fr.  William." 

The  letter  to  the  queen  was  lost;  the  one  that  Wilhel- 
mina  put  in  her  Memoirs  is  certainly  false.  Frederick 
William,  at  the  moment  he  took  precautions  to  lighten 
the  blow  that  he  gave  his  wife,  would  not  have  writ- 
ten to  her  if  he  had  resolved  upon  the  death  of  his 
son.  It  is  likely,  as  the  Ministers  of  England  and 
France  said,  that,  after  having  related  the  facts  and 
the  examination  of  the  prince,  and  the  manner  in  which 
he  conducted  himself,  he  announced  to  the  queen  the 
arrest  and  the  order  he  had  given  to  take  Fritz  to  a  for- 
tress.179 We  have  not  the  right  to  think  that  no  human 
sentiment  was  mingled  with  the  king's  anger.  There 
was  in  the  note  to  Madame  de  Kamken  a  strange  demon- 
stration of  sentiment,  but  yet  it  was  sentiment. 

Again,  the  king  sent  an  order  from  Wesel.  It  was 
to  arrest  Katte.  He  had  remained  quietly  in  Berlin, 
thinking  that  the  prince  had  renounced  his  project, 
since  he,  the  indispensable  companion,  could  not  join 
him.  He  went  to  pass  the  day  of  the  18th  of  August 
in  the  country,  through  permission  of  Field-marshal 
Natzmer,  chief  of  the  regiment  of  Gensd' amies.  He  was 
arrested  the  following  morning.180 

The  queen  and  Wilhelmina  passed  terrible  days  await- 
ing the  return.  Uneasy  as  to  the  fate  of  the  prince, 
the  remembrance,  too,  of,  their    intrigues,    must    have 


238  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

made  them  tremble  for  themselves.181  The  scene  of  the 
arrival  was  overpowering:  "We  both  ran  to  kiss 
his  hand,"  said  Wilhelmina,  "but  scarcely  did  he 
see  us  than  anger  and  rage  took  possession  of  him. 
He  became  black  in  the  face,  his  eyes  flashed  with 
fury,  and  he  foamed  at  the  mouth.  'Infamous  wretch,' 
said  he  to  me,  'dost  thou  dare  to  come  before  me? 
Go  and  keep  company  with  thy  rascally  brother.'" 
And  he  struck  her  so  hard  that  the  princess  fell  to  the 
floor;  he  wished  to  trample  her  under  foot;  the  queen, 
her  brothers  and  sisters,  and  the  ladies  of  the  court 
surrounded  him.  He  then  let  her  alone;  but,  while 
the  queen  wrung  her  hands  and  ran  wildly  about, 
and  the  brothers  and  sisters,  the  youngest  being  only  four 
years  old,  cried  on  their  knees,  he  hurled  invectives  at 
his  daughter.182  At  that  moment  Katte  crossed  the 
courtyard,  between  four  soldiers.  As  he  raised  his 
head  he  perceived  Wilhelmina,  whom  they  had  seated  in 
a  chair  in  the  embrasure  of  the  window:  he  saluted  her. 
The  king  did  not  have  the  hope  of  catching  Katte; 
when  he  gave  the  order  for  his  arrest,  he  believed 
he  had  fled,  like  Keith,  whom,  in  order  to  get  back 
again,  he  did  almost  the  impossible.  He  sent  a  colonel 
in  pursuit,  who  discovered  Keith  at  the  Hague.  He 
directed  Meinertshagen,  his  Minister  in  that  city,  to 
obtain  permission  to  arrest  the  deserter.  The  Grand 
Pensionary  of  Holland  refused  at  first,  then,  when  the 
Minister  laid  the  affair  before  him,  authorized  the  ar- 
rest, provided  it  was  not  made  in  the  quarters  of  Lord 
Chesterfield,  the  Ambassador  of  England.  It  was  there 
that  Keith  had  taken  refuge:  Meinertshagen  found  only 


THE  ATTEMPT  AT  ESCAPE.  239 

his  spurs  at  the  hotel  Drei  Schnellen.  The  18th  of 
August,  Keith  embarked  right  under  the  eyes  of  the 
Minister  at  Scheveningen,  where  he  had  been  conducted 
in  a  carriage  of  the  Embassy.  At  London  even,  the 
king  wished  to  have  him  arrested,  and  he  gave  the 
order  to  Degenfeld,  promising  him  a  good  recompense, 
eine  gute  Iieco?npens,  if  he  would  do  all  in  his  power 
to  discover  him,  and  he  sent  the  description  of  the 
fugitive:  " medium  height,  straight,  thin,  brown,  a  little 
pallid,  and  squint-eyed."  But  Keith  remained  out  of 
Frederick  William's  reach.183  Katte  was,  then,  the  only 
witness,  the  only  known  accomplice  :  the  king  let  all 
his  anger  fall  on  him.  He  himself  subjected  him,  the 
27th  of  August,  to  the  first  examination.  Four  others 
followed,  up  to  the  9th  of  September. 

Katte,  who  did  not  show  the  least  emotion  the  day  of 
his  arrest,  kept  his  composure.  He  confessed  the  pro- 
ject formed  in  the  Saxony  camp,  the  conversations  with 
the  prince,  and  the  negotiations  with  Guy  Dickens,  and 
the"  interviews  before  the  departure  on  the  journey.  He 
added,  in  his  defense,  the  advice  he  had  given  the 
prince  to  renounce  the  scheme;  he  made  the  remark 
that,  as  he  had  the  money  in  his  hands,  His  Highness 
could  not  fly,  insinuating  that  he  would  have  retained 
him  at  the  last  moment.  These  avowals  did  not  suffice 
Frederick  William,  who  sought  proofs  of  more  crimi- 
nal intentions.  He  wished  to  put  Katte  to  the  torture, 
but  relinquished  this  idea  upon  the  lively  opposition  of 
Grumbkow  to  this  barbarity.  Finally,  on  the  20th  of  Sep- 
tember, in  a  last  examination,  to  the  question:  "Does 
he  acknowledge,   then,    that  if    he  had    been  able,    he 


240  FREDERICK   THE    GREAT. 

would  have  escaped?"  Katte  answered:  "If  the 
prince  had  gone  I  would  have  followed  him,  but  I  al- 
ways thought  he  would  never  go."  No  doubt,  he 
spoke  the  truth.  It  is  probable  that  he  learned  with 
pleasure  that  permission  to  travel  had  been  refused 
him.  He  believed  that  the  prince  would  return,  and 
that  they  would  take  up  again  their  life  of  secret  friend- 
ship and  confidence,  which  would  aid  them  to  await  the 
accession.  But  he  had  admitted  that  he  would  have 
followed  the  prince,  had  it  been  necessary.  The  same 
day,  his  valet  made  a  deposition  to  the  fact  that  about 
two  days  before  the  arrest,  at  his  master's  order,  he  had 
covered  with  paper  the  silver  galloon  of  a  gray  coat 
made  for  the  prince. 

Upon  this  avowal  and  this  declaration,  the  examina- 
tion concluded,  concerning  Katte,  that,  up  to  the  last 
moment,  he  would  have  deserted. 

The  examination,  at  the  same  time,  continued  against 
the  principal  accused.  The  king  had  decided  that  his 
son  should  be  conducted,  not  to  Spandau,  but  to  Ciis- 
trin.  He  ordered  that  he  be  examined  before  arriving 
at  this  fortress,  at  Mittenwalde,  by  a  committee  com- 
posed of  Generals  Grumbkow  and  Glasenapp,  Colonel 
von  Sydow,  and  the  auditors  Mylius  and  Gerbett.  To 
believe  the  report  then  circulated,  he  was  very  inso- 
lent. He  refused  to  give  up  his  sword  himself  to 
Grumbkow,  saying  he  could  go  and  take  it  from  the 
table  in  the  adjoining  room.  He  amused  himself  by 
giving  his  deposition  with  such  rapidity  that  Grumb- 
kow's  pen  could  not  follow  him.  To  the  question : 
"Why  did  you  wish  to  run  away?"  he  answered:    "  You 


THE    ATTEMPT    AT    ESCAPE.  241 

ought  to  know  better  than  any  one,  and  be  more  capa- 
ble of  giving  the  reasons  to  your  master."  To  an  ob- 
jection that  Grumbkow  raised  to  one  of  his  answers,  he 
said:  "  You  are  here  only  to  write,  so  write."184  This  is 
all  mere  invention,  for  Grumbkow  did  not  conduct  the 
examination,  but  it  is  certain  that  the  prince  appeared 
very  gay  and  inclined  to  joke, —  lustig  unci  frolich,  and 
that  he  desired  to  have  the  air  of  directing  the  debates. 
He  had  it  written  in  the  minutes  that  he  had  said  ev- 
erything without  reticence  and  without  awaiting  the 
questions.  In  fact,  he  had  asked  several  times  of  the 
committee:  "Is  that  all?  Do  you  wish  to  know  still 
more?"  He  did  not  condescend  to  implore  either  par- 
don or  clemency  for  himself,  but  he  interceded  for 
Katte,  saying  that  the  unfortunate  man  had  been  in- 
duced to  do  it  through  him. 

Two  days  after  this  the  prince  was  registered  at  Ciis- 
trin.  General  von  Lepell,  Governor  of  the  place,  had 
received  orders  from  the  king;  "Guard  him  well,  for 
he  is  very  tricky,  and  will  invent  a  hundred  ways  to 
escape."  This  was  a  prison  in  reality,  with  all  its 
horrors.  Kept  in  secrecy  and  in  absolute  solitude,  the 
prince  became  very  weary.  He  tried  one  of  his  "hun- 
dred inventions,"  and  asked  permission  to  commune. 
He  really  did  not  have  the  slightest  desire  to  do  so,  and 
only  wished  some  distraction,  and  at  the  same  time  to 
flatter  his  father.  The  king  responded  :  "It  is  not  yet 
time;  the  court-martial  must  be  concluded,  first  of  all ; 
after  that  it  will  be  time."  These  words  had,  perhaps, 
a  terrible  hidden  meaning.  The  king  then  added  that 
the   prisoner   should    have  neither    pen    nor    ink ;    the 


242  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

prince  should  never  leave  his  room :  a  lackey  should 
take  him  his  dinner  and  supper;  the  dinner  should  cost 
but  six  grosehens,  and  the  supper  but  four.  His  flute 
should  be  taken  away  from  him,  and  it  was  forbidden 
to  procure  him  another.185 

Now  the  committee  prepared  a  second  examination, 
and  General  Mylius,  the  principal  auditor,  arranged  a 
list  of  questions.  To  this  procedure  of  the  jurists  the 
king  supplemented,  in  his  fashion,  five  questions  not 
within  the  bounds  of  the  law.  Mylius  hesitated  to  in- 
troduce them ;  he  wished  to  be  exonerated  from  all 
ulterior  responsibility  by  an  order  from  the  king.  "I 
have  dictated  these  articles  myself  to  my  secretary," 
wrote  the  king.  "I  command  you  to  execute  my  in- 
structions on  my  responsibility."  The  chief  examination 
took  place  on  the  16th  of  September.  The  prince  had 
finished  with  the  one  hundred  and  seventy-eight  first 
questions  which  bore  upon  the  subject  of  his  projected 
flight,  upon  the  negotiations  relative  to  the  marriage, 
and  upon  the  events  of  the  last  few  years.  Then  came 
the  king's   questions. 

Q.  What  does  he  deserve,  and  what  punishment  does 
he  expect?  A.  I  submit  myself  to  the  mercy  and  will 
of  the  king. 

Q.  What  does  a  man  deserve  when  he  has  broken 
his  faith  and  plotted  desertion  ?  A  I  do  not  think  I 
have  failed  in  honor. 

Q.  Does  he  deserve  to  become  a  king  ?  A.  I  can- 
not be  my  own  judge. 

Q.  Does  he  wish  his  life  to  be  spared  or  not  ?  A. 
I  submit  myself  to  the  mercy  and  will  of  the  king. 


THE  ATTEMPT  AT  ESCAPE.  243 

Q.  As  he  has  rendered  himself  unfit  to  succeed  to 
the  throne  by  breaking  his  faith,  will  he,  to  preserve 
his  life,  abdicate  his  succession  and  renounce  it  in  such 
manner  that  it  will  be  confirmed  throughout  the  whole 
Roman  Empire?  A.  I  do  not  cling  much  to  life,  but 
His  Royal  Majesty  will  not  use  such  rigorous  means 
against  me. 

Formidable  questions  these,  which  show  the  state  of 
mind  and  the  intentions  of  the  supreme  judge,  the  king. 
And  wonderful  answers, — after  the  fatigue  of  the  other 
examination — from  an  accused  of  eighteen  years,  to  be 
admired  for  the  precision  of  the  words,  which  say  ex- 
actly what  is  meant  to  be  expressed,  and  in  that  digni- 
fied, and  even  proud  manner  that  knows  no  compromise. 
The  prince  had  cleverly  glided  into  the  first  part  of  the 
examination,  expressions  of  regret,  and  a  plea  of  the 
extenuating  circumstance  of  his  youth.  At  the  end, 
troubled,  perhaps,  by  the  subsequent  questions,  and  not 
wishing  to  leave  the  impression  upon  the  committee  that 
"I  do  not  cling  to  life,"  he  made  a  declaration  which  he 
asked  to  be  inserted  in  the  formulary.  "He  acknowl- 
edged that,  all  in  all,  upon  every  point,  he  had  been 
in  the  wrong ;  that  which  gave  him  the  most  sorrow 
was  the  trouble  he  gave  His  Majesty;  that  he  submit- 
ted in  everything  to  the  mercy  and  will  of  the  king : 
that  His  Majesty  could  do  with  him  what  seemed  best 
to  him;  that  he  asked  pardon." 

In  receiving  the  protocol  the  king  tore  off  the  addi- 
tion to  it,  where  pardon  was  asked.  He  made  the 
prison  life  harder,  so  as  to  avenge  himself  upon  his 
son's  coolness  and  cleverness.     He  sent  to  the  Governor 


244  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

General  an  instruction  "in  regard  to  the  way  the  pris- 
oner, Prince  Frederick,  should  be  guarded  so  that  he 
could  not  escape  from  the  prison,"  notifying  the  said 
/General,  even  in  the  title  of  the  document,  that  his 
head  would  be  responsible  for  the  execution  of  these 
orders:  "The  door  (of  the  room)  where  Prince  Freder- 
ick is  held  a  prisoner  must  be  well-closed  day  and 
night,  with  two  heavy  locks  across  it;  the  keys  must  be 
in  the  keeping  of  General  Lepell.  Every  morning  at 
eight  o'clock  it  must  be  opened,  and  two  officers  shall 
enter  to  see  if  everything  is  right;  a  stoker  of  the  post 
shall  bring  to  the  arrested,  dem  Arrestanten,  a  glass 
and  a  basin  of  water  to  make  himself  clean,  and  take 
the  soiled  things  from  the  room ;  the  whole  must  not 
take  more  than  a  few  minutes;  then  the  officers  are  to 
go  out  and  close  the  door  firmly.  At  noon  they  shall 
bring  him  something  to  eat,  and,  immediately  after, 
close  the  door.  In  the  evening  at  six  o'clock  they  shall 
open  the  door  again,  and  take  him  something  to  eat. 
The  soiled  plates  and  dishes  (of  the  dinner)  shall  then 
be  removed,  and,  immediately  after,  close  all  again  se- 
curely. In  the  morning,  when  bringing  the  water,  the 
soiled  plates  and  dishes  of  the  evening  before  shall  be 
taken  away.  Thus,  three  times  a  day  the  door  shall  be 
opened,  and  every  time,  it  shall  not  remain  open  longer 
than  four  minutes,  and  two  captains  shall  be  present  at 
the  opening  and  closing.  As  regards  the  sentinels,  have 
as  many  as  are  necessary,  for  you  will  be  held  responsi- 
ble. The  captains  who  open  and  close  the  doors  must 
not,  under  penalty  of  great  disgrace,  speak  to  the  pris- 
oner.    If    he  asks  them    anything,    "What   is   taking 


THE    ATTEMPT    AT    ESCAPE.  245 

place  here  or  there,  or  if  there  is  any  news,"  they  are 
not  to  answer  a  word  ;  this  is  my  strict  order,  and  they 
must  conform  to  it  as  their  heads  will  be  responsible."186 

The  jailors  (the  king  had  added  a  colonel  to  General 
Lepell)  reflected  upon  the  king's  orders,  and  found  that 
he  had  not  foreseen  everything:  "  The  very  gracious 
order  of  Your  Majesty  has  arrived,  but,  in  virtue  of  the 
said  order,  as  no  one  can  remain  more  than  four  minutes 
near  the  royal  prisoner,  and  cannot  be  present  while  he 
eats,  we  ask,  in  all  submission:  1st,  Must  we  leave  him 
a  knife  and  fork,  and  for  how  long  a  time;  2d,  How 
many  wax  candles  a  day  must  be  given  him?"  The 
king  answered:  "Neither  knife  nor  fork.  Have  his 
victuals  cut  up  beforehand."  He  forgot  to  speak  of  the 
wax  candles,  but,  some  days  later,  receiving  the  ac- 
counts of  "His  Royal  Highness'  subsistence,"  which 
amounted  for  four  weeks, — comprising  the  washing, 
lodging  and  feeding  of  the  lackey,  in  the  town,  and  the 
locks  put  on  the  door — thirty-two  thalers,  three  gros- 
chens  and  three  pfennigs,  he  approved  and  settled  these 
accounts,  but  ordered  for  the  future  that  the  wax  light 
should  be  replaced  by  tallow  candles.187 

This  redoubled  vigilance  gave  the  prince  some  un- 
easiness. "It  seems  to  me,"  said  he  one  day  to  the  two 
captains  of  service,  "  that  lam  more  severely  guarded 
than  ever."  He  wished  to  see  faces,  to  talk  and  hear 
others  talk.  The  little  scheme  about  the  communion 
not  having  succeeded,  he  asked  to  be  heard  again  by 
the  committee.  The  king,  after  having  hesitated  some 
days,  sent  them  to  Ciistrin,  but  he  instructed  Grumb- 
kow  to  say  very  disagreeable  things  to  the  prince:   "If 


246  FREDERICK   THE    GREAT. 

this  knave  asks  news  of  me,  my  wife  and  my  children, 
say  that  no  one  thinks  of  him  any  longer,  that  my  wife 
never  wishes  to  hear  of  him  again,  that  Wilhelmina 
is  shut  up  in  Berlin,  and  will  soon  be  sent  to  the 
country.      .      .      ." 

The  examining  magistrates  soon  saw  that  the  prince 
had  nothing  to  say  to  them.  As  he  begun  by  recall- 
ing that,  according  to  the  first  examination,  the 
choice  had  been  given  him  between  renunciation  of  the 
crown  and  death  or  imprisonment  for  life,  they  re- 
marked to  him  that,  of  imprisonment  for  life  there  had 
been  no  mention.  "  Then,"  he  replied,  "all  my  reflec- 
tions are  useless.  A  long  imprisonment  was  appearing 
to  me  intolerable.  If  I  must  lose  my  life,  I  beg  they 
will  give  me  to  understand  it  in  suitable  time.  As  to 
renunciation,  if  I  thought  to  recover  through  that 
means  the  good  graces  of  the  king,  I  would  submit  to 
his  will.  I  can  also  assure  you  that  the  king  may  do  with 
me  what  he  will,  and  as  he  will ;  I  will  love  him  none 
the  less.  Respect  and  love  for  him  will  always  remain 
in  my  heart."  Evidently,  he  wished  to  be  reassured. 
The  committee  gave  him  probably  good  report,  for  he 
saw  himself  suddenly  out  of  danger,  and  confided  to 
them  two  wishes  that  he  had:  "I  take  the  liberty  to 
beg  His  Majesty  to  allow  me  to  put  on  my  uniform 
again,  and  permit  me  to  read  good  and  useful  books." 
Then  Grumbkow,  after  having  given  this  message  to 
the  king,  must  say:  "If  the  queen  has  also  turned  her 
grace  from  me,  I  pray  the  king  to  influence  my  mother 
to  give  me  back  again  her  grace  and  love." 

The  prisoner  in  this  way  gave   himself  the  pleasure 


THE    ATTEMPT   AT   ESCAPE.  247 

of  a  conversation;  on  the  same  occasion  he  found  means 
to  flatter  his  father  in  his  most  sensitive  point,  in  ask- 
ing again  for  that  uniform  that,  but  a  short  while  since, 
he  called  "my  shroud."  He  hoped  to  touch  him 
through  the  promise  of  a  submission,  which  would  go 
even  so  far  as  to  renounce  the  throne.  He  knew,  too, 
that  the  king  reproached  him  for  loving  only  the 
queen;  to  implore  his  father  to  reconcile  his  mother  and 
himself  was  a  very  clever   "invention." 

The  king's  reply  was:  "I  do  not  wish  so  bad  an 
officer  in  my  army,  much  less  in  my  regiment." 

What  was  Frederick  William's  inward  feeling?  He 
was  a  prey  to  sinister  thoughts,  and  committed  atro- 
cious acts.  The  examination  revealed  a  little  love  in- 
trigue that  Frederick  had  with  Elizabeth  Ritter, 
daughter  of  a  Cantor  of  Potsdam.  One  evening, 
while  strolling  through  the  streets  with  Lieutenant 
Ingersleben,  the  prince  attracted  this  young  girl  from 
the  house.  He  had  visited  her  several  times,  during 
the  absence  of  her  father.  They  had  played  duets  to- 
gether upon  the  harpsichord  and  flute;  he  had  given 
her  some  ducats  and  a  blue  dress.  The  king,  as  soon 
as  he  learned  this  story,  sent  a  midwife  and  a  surgeon 
to  Elizabeth.  They  found  her  innocent.  Nevertheless, 
he  gave  the  two  following  orders:  "  His  Royal  Majesty 
commands  Klinte,  Judge  of  the  Court,  to  whip  to-mor- 
row the  daughter  of  the  Cantor,  who  is  here  under  ar- 
rest, and  to  transport  her  immediately  to  the  hemp  fac- 
tory of  the  prison  of  Spandau.  She  must  be  whipped 
before  the  city  hall,  after  that,  before  her  father's  house, 
then  at  all    the  corners  of  the  city."     "To    the  Gov- 


248  FREDERICK   THE    GREAT. 

ernor  of  Spandau.  His  Majesty  orders,  through  the 
present  letter,  that  the  Governor  of  Spandau  shall  re- 
ceive for  life  into  the  hemp  factory  of  the  prison  the 
daughter  of  the  Cantor  of  Potsdam,  who  is  about  to  be 
sent  there."  188  The  foreign  ministers  who  reported  news 
like  this  to  their  courts  wondered  how  it  could  be  cred- 
ited. 

Everything  that  touched  Frederick,  closely  or  re- 
motely, was  visited  by  the  king's  wrath.  One  of  the 
examinations  of  Katte  revealed  the  existence  of  the 
secret  library,  so  dear  to  the  prince  that  he  had  given 
orders  to  have  it  transported,  after  his  flight,  to  Eng- 
land. The  king  had  the  librarian  called  before  him;  a 
poor  devil  of  a  beadle,  whom  he  questioned  for  an  hour 
and  a  half,  asking,  among  other  things,  if  there  were 
books  in  this  library  on  atheism,  and  how  much  the 
prince  paid  by  the  week.  When  the  man  said  "twenty 
sols,"  the  king  had  a  moment  of  satisfaction  :  "At  any 
rate,  that  is  not  too  much,"  said  he.  Then  the  king 
was  conducted  to  the  house  that  contained  the  fifteen 
closets,  opened  a  few  of  the  volumes,  ordered  the 
crowned  F  to  be  effaced  from  the  covers  of  the  books, 
and  for  them  all  to  be  packed  in  boxes.  They  were 
shipped  immediately  to  Hamburg,  to  the  Prussian  resi- 
dent there,  with  the  order  to  sell  the  books  "for  as 
good  a  price  as  possible,"  without  disclosing  whence 
they  came.  The  resident  made  a  catalogue  wherein 
he  inscribed  the  books  in  the  disorder  that  he  found 
them,  and  among  them  even  the  catalogue  that  Fred- 
erick himself  had  made.  Like  the  books,  the  masters 
were  also  dispatched.  Duhan  was  exiled  to  Memel 
with  the  beadle  librarian.189 


THE    ATTEMPT    AT    ESCAPE.  249 

At  the  same  time  the  prince's  servants  were  dismissed; 
his  carriages  and  horses  were  sold.  The  regiment  of 
which  he  was  colonel  for  three  years  was  given  to  his 
brother  William.  It  might  have  been  said  that  the 
succession  to  the  title  of  Crown  Prince  was  open. 

All  those  who  approached  the  king  really  feared  that 
it  might  be  so.  Ginckel,  the  Minister  from  Holland, 
who  was  in  great  favor  with  the  king,  observed  him 
during  this  crisis.  One  day,  in  the  beginning  of  Sep- 
tember, he  was  at  the  parade  near  the  king,  whom  he 
saw  for  the  first  time  since  the  event.  The  king 
spoke,  at  first,  of  indifferent  things,  then  there  sud- 
denly came  a  furious  light  in  his  eyes:  "You  know 
what  is  going  on,"  and,  in  a  torrent  of  oaths  and 
curses,  he  named  the  accomplices  of  the  prince,  France, 
England,  Sir  Charles  Hotham  and  Guy  Dickens.  He 
invited  Ginckel  to  return  that  evening,  so  that  he  could 
tell  him  more.  The  things  that  the  Hollander  heard 
that  night  at  the  tabagie  he  dared  not  repeat.  He  could 
not  believe  it  possible  that  a  human  mind  could  form 
designs  as  impious  and  execrable  as  those  that  were  con- 
fided to  him:  "If  the  King  of  Prussia  persists  in  these 
sentiments  (it  is  to  be  hoped  that  God  will  not  permit 
it),  we  will  see  the  most  dreadful,  bloody  scenes  that 
have  ever  happened  since  the  creation  of  the  world." 
That  night  Ginckel  could  not  sleep,  haunted  by  the 
vision  of  the  king  uttering  the  most  awful  threats 
to  his  family  with  a  wild  look  and  foaming  at  the 
mouth.190  Frederick  William  thought  at  that  time  that 
there  was  a  great  plot  organized  against  him  to  take 
his  son  away,  and  that  even  Frederick  wished  to  kill  or 
poison  him. 


250  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

His  anger  increased  more  and  more  daring  the  whole 
month  of  September.  He  passed  horrible  nights,  tor- 
mented by  apparitions.  But,  in  proportion  as  the  ex- 
amination proved  the  exaggeration  of  his  suspicions,  in 
spite  of  himself,  he  appeared  to  become  a  little  calmer; 
however,  even  this  exasperated  him.  The  latter  part 
of  October,  in  one  of  the  sittings  at  his  tabagie,  he  ac- 
companied the  name  of  his  son  with  the  grossest  insults. 
Ginckel  tried  to  intercede:  "The  prince,"  said  he, 
"has  merely  committed  a  youthful  indiscretion,  he  is, 
nevertheless,  the  son  and  the  blood  of  Your  Majesty." 
"  As  for  the  blood,"  replied  the  king  .  .  .  but  he 
was  so  furious  that  he  could  not  speak.  He  pointed 
with  his  finger  to  his  arm,  as  much  as  to  say,  "this 
blood  must  be  drawn  out  of  him."  191 

Frederick  William  never  thought  he  had  reason  to 
reproach  himself.  "May  God  spare  all  honest  people," 
wrote  he  to  Prince  Anhalt,  "  unnatural  children  !  It  is 
a  great  sorrow.  However,  I  have  before  God  and  the 
world  a  pure  conscience.  Admonitions,  chastisements, 
kindness,  pardon,  I  have  tried  all ;  nothing  has  suc- 
ceeded." As  to  the  pardon  and  kindness  of  which  he 
speaks,  we  know  of  no  other  proofs  but  some  few  returns 
to  tenderness  that  interrupted  the  rain  of  abuses  and 
blows.  In  the  examination  to  which  "he  submitted 
his  conscience,  he  was  partial  to  himself.  He  repre- 
sented to  this  conscience  his  labor,  his  trouble,  his  hard 
life,  and  compared  it  to  that  of  this  reader  of  books, 
this  flute-player.  He  thought  of  his  army,  his  treasure 
amassed  crown  by  crown,  and  for  whom  ?„  For  this 
dandy,    who  preferred  a    " roqiielaure"  to  the  uniform 


THE    ATTEMPT   AT   ESCAPE.  251 

of  the  Grenadiers,  and  ran  into  debt  to  pay  for  books, 
music  and  women.  The  future  that  he  was  preparing 
for  his  Prussia,  and  that  he  saw  from  afar,  as  did 
Moses  the  promised  land,  without  hope  of  entering  it, 
—  this  future  that  he  pointed  out  and  prescribed,  when 
still  a  young  king,  for  his  successors,  he  saw  vanish 
before  the  idleness  of  this  rhymster  and  philosopher. 

Then,  before  God,  he  believed  himself  justified  to 
use  this  harshness.  He  did  not  render  into  account,  in 
the  narrowness  of  his  mind  and  the  fanaticism  of  his 
autocratic  will,  the  fact  that  a  person  could  be  other- 
wise formed  than  he,  and  that  his  son  had  the  right 
not  to  resemble  him  trait  for  trait,  and  that  to  com- 
mand his  army  after  him,  to  use  his  treasure,  continue 
his  Prussia,  it  was  necessary  to  possess  qualities  that 
he  did  not  have.  His  son's  qualities  he  began  to  see 
in  part,  but  they  ended  in  irritating  him,  through 
the  effect  of  a  sentiment  that  he  would  not  admit  to 
himself.  He  was  astonished  that  this  M knave"  could 
defend  himself  with  so  much  assurance  and  cleverness. 
He  was  enraged  to  think  that  this  "rascal,"  this. good- 
for-nothing,  could  have,  as  he  said,  more  wit  than  any 
one  else.  Pie  was  jealous,  and  his  jealousy  increased 
his  hatred  and  disfigured  it.  His  successor  was  to  him 
a  "dreaded  rival."  If  he  allowed  his  prisoner  to  es- 
cape from  his  hands,  God  knows  what  he  would  not 
be  capable  of  venturing,  with  his  friends  inside  the 
kingdom  and  those  outside, — with  France  and  Eng- 
land. To  the  grievance  of  the  occult  relations  with 
the  foreigners,  the  king  attached  himself  with  obsti- 
nacy;   he    enlarged  upon  it,    so  as  to  complicate  with 


252  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

treason    the    projected  flight  of    the    prince.     He   cer- 
tainly sought  for  capital  accusations.192 

The  foreign  ministers  reported  that  Seckendorff  and 
Grumbkow  stirred  up  the  king's  anger.  They  said 
that  Grumbkow,  master  of  the  situation,  wished  to  dis- 
embarrass himself  of  the  prince,  whose  vengeance  he 
feared.  Grumbkow  and  Seckendorff,  in  fact,  triumphed  ; 
their  adversaries  were  conquered.  Cnyphausen  had 
been  sent  away,  and  replaced  by  Grumbkow' s  son-in- 
law.  The  king  lavished  his  declarations  of  esteem 
upon  the  two  accomplices.  All  those  who  surrounded 
him,  said  he,  appeared  suspects  to  him,  except  Grumb- 
kow,193 who  alone  remained  faithful.  At  last  the  mar- 
riage negotiations  seemed  to  be  buried.  The  king 
wished  no  longer  that  his  family  should  unite  with 
that  of  England,  neither  at  that  time  nor  ever.  By 
his  order  one  of  his  ministers  was  sent  to  Guy  Dickens, 
and  made  him  this  little  speech:  "Sir,  I  have  been 
required  to  say  to  you,  on  behalf  of  the  king,  my  mas- 
ter, that  the  plans  of  marriage,  either  single  or  double, 
must  no  longer  be  contemplated.  You  can  make  of 
this  declaration  what  use  you  may  deem  proper."  Guy 
Dickens,  after  having  referred  the  matter  to  his  court, 
brought  to  His  Majesty's  minister  this  reply :  "Sir,  I 
come  on  behalf  of  the  king,  my  master,  to  deliver  the 
answer  to  the  declaration  that  you  have  presented  in 
regard  to  the  double  marriage.  His  Majesty  com- 
mands me  to  say  that  it  was  the  King  of  Prussia  him- 
self who  first  gave  thought  to  these  marriages,  to  which 
His  Majesty  gave  ear,  on  his  side,  through  the  friend- 
ship that  he  had  for  the  family  of  the  queen,  his  sister, 


THE  ATTEMPT  AT  ESCAPE.  253 

and  through  his  attachment  to  the  Protestant  religion ; 
that  if  the  King  of  Prussia  had  since  changed  his  senti- 
ments in  regard  to  this  subject,  it  was  a  question  of  entire 
indifference  to  His  Majesty.  He  only  wished,  that, 
from  the  beginning,  the  King  of  Prussia  had  thought 
this  way,  for,  in  that  case,  no  explanations  would  have 
been  necessary  between  them.  With  this  declaration, 
Sir,  you  can  do  as  you  judge  proper."194 

It  is  true  that  the  Queen  of  Prussia,  instead  of  con- 
tenting herself  with  tears,  continued  to  agitate  the 
question  and  intrigue  with  England.  She  begged  Guy 
Dickens,  on  the  receipt  of  the  news  of  the  arrest  of  the 
prince,  to  send  to  his  court,  without  losing  a  moment's 
time,  a  report  of  her  lamentable  situation.  "She  wished 
the  King  of  England  to  know  that  all  her  hope,  all 
her  confidence,  reposed  in  him.  She  was  convinced 
that  he  would  not  abandon    her  in  this  trouble."195 

At  the  time  even  when  Frederick  William  denounced 
the  consideration  of  the  marriages  in  the  manner  of  a 
declaration  of  war,  the  queen  was  still  petitioning 
the  Court  of  London  to  address  to  the  king  a  solemn 
demand  for  the  hand  of  Wilhelmina.  "This  is," 
she  said,  "the  only  means  of  appeasing  our  mad- 
man." 196  But,  what  mattered  it  to  Grumbkow  and  Seck- 
endorff  ?  They  had  every  reason  to  believe  that  the 
odious  intrigue  that  they  carried  out  through  the  order 
from  Vienna,  had  succeeded.  Content  with  their  success 
and  the  humiliation  of  their  enemies,  was  there  any- 
thing else  they  wanted?  Did  they  work  for  the  de- 
struction of  the  prince  and  seek  means  to  lead  him  to 
the  scaffold  ?     Of  course,  if  they  had  received  news  of 


254  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

the  death  of  Frederick  in  prison,  the  sadness  that  they 
would  have  shown,  the  tears  that  they  would  have 
shed,  would  not  have  deceived  anyone.  But  these  ras- 
cals were  not  sanguinary.  They  had  not  the  audacity 
to  commit  a  real  crime.  They  were,  besides,  well 
enough  informed  to  comprehend  that  it  was  not  so 
easy  to  find  a  means  of  death  in  this  affair.  They 
foresaw  that  Frederick  would  survive  this  danger,  into 
which  they  had  helped  to  lead  him.  Already,  they 
thought  of  the  morrow;  they  went  so  far  as  to  prepare 
a  role  for  themselves  as  peacemakers  and  instruments 
of  pardon.  Grumbkow  congratulated  himself  that  he 
had  not  been  on  the  trip  when  the  prince  was  ar- 
rested. Seckendorff,  too,  pretended  to  use  his  efforts 
toward  calming  the  king  and  refuting,  one  by  one,  his 
arguments.  At  all  events,  he  did  not  wish  to  have 
the  air  of  triumphing  over  his  enemies.  One  day  the 
king,  after  the  dismissal  of  Cnyphausen,  said  to  him  : 
"Well!  I  have  made  a  clean  sweep!"  He  'was  con- 
tent to  reply  with  a  few  words,  "muttered  in  his  husky 
voice."  Twice,  during  the  crisis,  he  returned  to  his 
estates,  as  a  disinterested,  inoffensive  man.197 

No  one  advised  the  king  to  pronounce  the  penalty 
of  death  upon  his  son.  The  idea  certainly  emanated 
from  his  own  brain,  and  pertinaciously  stayed  there. 
Don  Carlos,  of  Spain,  and  Alexis,  of  Russia,  no  doubt, 
passed  through  his  unsteady  mind  during  the  nocturnal 
apparitions,  but  his  conscience,  after  all,  was  worth 
more  than  those  of  Philip  of  Spain  and  Czar  Peter. 
And,  besides,  he  was  obliged  more  than  they,  to  take 
the  opinion  of  the  world  into  consideration.     He  pre- 


THE    ATTEMPT    AT    ESCAPE.  255 

occupied  his  mind  with  what  Europe  would  say, —  in 
what  she  had  already  said.  One  of  his  complaints 
against  Frederick  and  his  party  was,  "that  they  did 
all  they  possibly  could  to  represent  him  to  the  world 
as  a  tyrant."  198 

Throughout  Europe  "there  was  spread  the  report  of 
the  King  of  Prussia's  cruelty."  The  States-General, 
Sweden  and  Saxony,  wrote  letters  of  intercession  for 
the  Crown  Prince.  The  King  of  Sweden  pleaded  with 
Frederick  William  that,  while  placing  himself  between 
his  duties  as  a  king  and  his  duties  as  a  father,  to  lis- 
ten to  his  paternal  heart.  "Your  family,  your  peo- 
ple, the  Protestants,  all  Europe,  await  this  decision  of 
your  natural  kindness,  and  implore  you  to  make  it." 
From  London,  Degenfeld  (who  replaced  Reichenbach, 
recalled),  wrote  "that  the  court  was  astounded;"  that 
"all  the  good  Protestants  of  the  nation  were  sad- 
dened and  grievously  troubled  ;  all  awaited  that  senti- 
ment of  His  Majesty,  which  would  give  free  scope  to 
his  paternal  tenderness  .  .  .  and  which  would 
be  merciful  to  the  prince  and  pardon  him,  for  the  con- 
solation of  the  Protestant  religion."199 

The  king,  it  is  true,  received  these  supplications 
with  a  very  bad  grace.  The  Swedish  Minister,  who 
received  the  letter  from  his  king  the  latter  part  of 
August,  dared  not  then  put  it  into  the  hands  of  Fred- 
erick William.  It  did  not  reach  its  destination  until 
a  month  after.  The  king  wrote  on  the  margin  a  single 
word:   " Reponatur"  meaning,  classify  it. 

Ginckel,  bolder  and  in  better  standing  at  Court,  ac- 
quitted himself    of    his  commission    from    the    "High 


256  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

Powers."  "Yes,"  responded  the  king,  "I  know  that 
the  whole  world  wishes  to  pass  me  off  as  a  brutal 
man,  and  that  the  prisoner  would  like  to  circulate  it 
abroad  throughout  Europe."  He  feigned  to  be  insen- 
sible to  all  these  rumors,  as  well  as  to  all  these  peti- 
tions, and  through  his  ministers  made  it  known  that  he 
permitted  no  one,  "whoever  he  may  be,  to  meddle 
with  his  domestic  affairs."  Nevertheless,  he  was  troub- 
led. He  thought  to  make  a  public  declaration,  and 
prepared  a  manifesto  to  the  Powers.200  Finally  he  said 
he  was  not  free  enough  to  decide  alone  this  domestic 
affair.  He  was  not  only  king;  he  was  Elector  of 
Brandenburg.  Frederick  was  not  only  heir  to  the 
royal  crown  of  Prussia;  he  was  heir  to  the  Electorate 
of  the  Empire.  The  Imperial  Court,  it  is  true,  did 
not  press  him  to  act.  It  was  not  until  the  latter  part 
of  October  that  they  suggested  to  the  king,  that  if 
agreeable  to  him  they  would  intercede  between  father 
and  son,  as  they  could  not,  and  Frederick  William 
was  well  aware  of  it,  show  indifference  to  the  fate  "of 
such  an  eminent  member  of  the  Empire." 

All  these  exterior  considerations,  added  to  the  scru- 
ples of  his  conscience,  admonished  Frederick  William 
against  these  extreme  resolutions.  Besides,  his  real 
intentions  must  not  be  judged  by  these  actions;  the  vio- 
lent soothe  themselves  with  violent  words.  I  would 
not  dare  to  say  that  he  did  not  wish  at  times,  that 
his  son  might  die  in  prison,  but  he  was  incapable  of 
having  him  poisoned  or  strangled  there.  It  now  re- 
mained to  have  the  proceeding  against  him  by  means 
of  justice.     But   before   what   tribunal?     The  title   of 


THE    ATTEMPT   AT    ESCAPE.  257 

member  of  the  empire  would  follow  the  accused  and 
complicate  the  trial.  And,  besides,  could  the  king 
hope  that  a  Prussian  tribunal  would  condemn  the  Crown 
Prince  of  Prussia  to  death?  It  seems  to  me,  after  the 
first  burst  of  anger,  that  he  saw  the  impossibility  of 
a  capital  condemnation  and  an  execution. 

The  idea  to  which  he  held  the  longest  was  to  de- 
prive his  son  of  the  crown.  He  treated  him  as  if  he 
were  disinherited.  He  gave  Frederick's  regiment  to 
William.  He  called  his  oldest  son  no  longer  the  Kron- 
prinz,  but  "Frederick,  the  son  of  the  King  of  Prus- 
sia," or,  "Prince  Frederick."  m  But  why,  then,  did  he 
not  accept  the  proposition  that  Frederick  had  made  to 
the  committee  the  second  time  that  he  had  been  heard 
by  them,  to  renounce  his  rights?  Why  was  he  only 
contented  to  reply  that  he  did  not  wish  to  have  him 
again  as  an  officer  in  his  army?  No  doubt  because  he 
did  not  believe  in  the  sincerity  of  the  prince,  and  be- 
cause he  dreaded  the  troubles  that  would  overturn  the 
State  after  his  death.  He  felt  sure  that  Frederick 
would  not  abdicate  his  title  of  heir-apparent  without 
mental  reservation,  and  that  the  younger  brother,  Will- 
iam, would  have  to  deal  with  a  powerful  opponent. 
And  in  addition  to  this,  such  an  act  would  be  void 
without  the  solemn  confirmation  that  it  would  be  nec- 
essary to  demand  from  the  Empire.  This  was  a  very 
slow  proceeding  to  follow.  It  would  be  submitting, 
before  the  eyes  of  all  Europe,  this  family  history  to 
the  judgment  of  princes  and  emperors.  Who  knows 
what  would  come  to  pass?  The  malevolently  inclined 
were    not    lacking    among  the    princes,   and    Frederick 


258  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

William  knew  well    that  he    would  be  the  one    to  be 
judged. 

In  truth  there  was  but  one  solution — death.  This 
was  impossible.  What  was  to  be  done?  For  it  seemed 
something  must  be  done. 

From  the  first  day  Frederick  William  had  qualified 
his  son's  act  as  desertion.  Frederick,  the  colonel, 
wished  to  desert:  he  was  then  subject  to  examination  by 
court-martial.  The  king  was  speaking  of  a  court- 
martial,  when  the  prince  asked  for  communion  at  Ciis- 
trin.  The  21st  of  September  he  formally  ordered  the 
arraignment  of  the  deserter.  A  month  later  he  formed 
the  court-martial  under  the  presidency  of  Lieutenant- 
General  von  Schulenberg,  and  at  the  same  time  referred 
to  him  the  accomplices  of  the  prince:  Keith,  who  re- 
ally deserted ;  Katte,  who  premeditated  desertion,  and 
had  partly  put  it  into  execution;  Lieutenant  von  Spaen, 
who  ordered  the  carriage  at  Leipsic  in  December,  1729; 
Lieutenant  von  Ingersleben,  who  knew  of  Frederick's 
plan  (for  he  accompanied  Katte  on  the  night  visit  at 
Potsdam,  the  evening  before  the  departure  of  the  king), 
and  besides  this  he  favored  the  love  affair  of  the  prince 
with  the  daughter  of  the  Cantor.  The  court  com- 
posed of  three  major-generals,  three  colonels,  three  lieu- 
tenant-colonels, three  majors  and  three  captains,  had 
its  sitting  the  25th  of  October,  at  Kopenick.  Each 
group  had  one  voice  and  the  president  one. 

What  judgment  did  the  king  expect  of  this  council 
concerning  his  son?  He  had  seen,  little  by  little,  in 
the  course  of  the  examination,  the  accusation  weaken 
and  melt  in  his  hands.     There  had  never  been  discov- 


THE  ATTEMPT  AT  ESCAPE.  259 

ered  either  the  written  promise  given  by  Frederick 
to  marry  the  Princess  Amelia,  or  the  intrigues  of  Rot- 
tenburg.  The  foreign  relations  were  reduced  to  his  ask- 
ing England  for  shelter,  which  had  been  refused;  the 
king  himself  was  obliged  to  agree  to  that:  "It  is  cer- 
tain," wrote  he  to  Prince  Anhalt,  "that  England  knew 
all,  but  that  she  tried  to  dissuade  him  from  the  de- 
sertion." The  prince  had  declared  that  he  wished  to 
retire  to  France,  and  Katte  had  advised  him  to  stop 
in  Alsace,  at  Count  Rottenburg's  home,  but  of  a  po- 
litical intrigue  with  France,  of  a  complicity  with  her, 
there  was  no  trace.202 

There  remained  the  simple  desertion,  but  the  accused 
did  not  acknowledge  this  crime.  He  wished  to  run 
away,  because  he  was  badly  treated;  he  was  a  son  who 
wished  to  fly  from  the  mistreatment  he  received  from 
his  father — that  was  all.  "This  little  knave,"  said  the 
king,  "has  invincible  cleverness  and  hard-headedness 
in  defending  himself,  and  is  continually  opposed  to 
saying  that  he  wished  to  desert."  The  king  ended  by 
fearing  that  he  would  find  nothing  convicting  at  all 
in  this  "trial  of  sorcerers."  He  even  went  so  far 
sometimes  as  to  treat  the  affair  as  an  "  escapade," 
then,  the  moment  after,  swore  only  by  <  <  the  gibbet 
and  wheel."  He  could  not  resign  himself  to  let  them 
say  that  all  this  harshness  was  excited  over  a  "youth- 
ful prank."  He  promised  Degenfeld  to  show  him 
procf  of  a  projected  scheme,  well  and  duly  considered, 
that  had  been  agitating  for  over  a  year.  He  watched 
the  drawing  up  of  the  excerpts  from  the  facts  of  the 
examination,  prepared  by  the  auditor,  General  Mylius, 


260  FREDERICK   THE    GREAT. 

which  he  had  the  design  to  publish  (but  which  he  did 
not  publish,  however). 

The  same  day  that  he  called  the  court-martial  he 
had  them  read  this  mandate.  He  ordered  the  effacing 
of  the  title  of  "Highness  "  everywhere  it  was  given  to 
the  prince.  He  complained  of  the  minutes,  and  com- 
manded Mylius  "seriously"  to  bear  stronger  on  the 
idea  that  "His  Majesty  has  not  without  cause  done 
what  he  has  done  .  .  ,  otherwise,  for  ten  who  would 
give  the  right  to  the  king,  there  would  be  ten  who 
would  give  the  right  to  the  prince."  He  wished  that 
this  document  should  not  be  simply  an  extract,  but  a 
very  particular  manifesto,  "so  that  the  people  will 
not  believe  that  the  king  has  refused  bread  to  his 
son,  and  that  the  prince  has  been  constrained  by  neces- 
sity to  do  what  he  has  done,  while  the  king  has  had  his 
motives  to  leave  nothing  to  the  disposition  of  the  prince 
outside  of  his  actual  needs."  If  I  am  not  deceived,  he 
discloses  by  these  words  a  sort  of  uneasiness  of  being 
condemned  by  the  public;  he  was  nearly  resigned  to 
content  himself  with  proving  that  he  had  good  reasons 
for  being  severe. 

Those  who  observed  Frederick  William  closely  dur- 
ing these  last  days  came  to  the  conclusion  that  he  had 
arrived  at  that  point  where  he  himself  no  longer  knew 
what  he  wanted.  It  appears  to  me  clearly  that  he  gave 
no  more  thought  to  a  capital  condemnation,  or  even  to 
Frederick's  renunciation  of  the  paternal  crown.203 

THE    JUDGMENT. 

For  two  days,  the  25th  and  26th  of  October,  the 
court-martial  heard  the    reading  of   the  actions  of  the 


THE  ATTEMPT  AT  ESCAPE.  261 

examination.  The  27th,  the  captains,  majors,  lieu- 
tenant-colonels, colonels  and  major-generals  deliberated 
separately  on  their  vote. 

The  judges  were  unanimous  concerning  Keith.  He 
had  shamelessly  left  the  service,  deserted;  he  must  be 
called  three  times  by  beat  of  drum.  If  he  does  not 
appear  his  sword  must  be  broken,  and  his  effigy  hung 
on  the  gibbet. 

In  regard  to  Lieutenant  Ingersleben,  the  captains 
held  against  him  nothing  but  the  accusation  of  hav- 
ing made  some  commissions  to  the  daughter  of  the 
Cantor  of  Potsdam,  a  thing  he  knew  to  be  disagree- 
able to  His  Majesty;  they  stipulated  for  him,  two 
months'  imprisonment  added  to  that  which  he  had  already 
endured.  The  majors,  in  the  same  cause,  provided 
that  the  said  lieutenant  could  have  dispensed  with  the 
evening  promenades  with  the  prince,  and  still  more 
with  carrying  presents  to  the  girl,  stipulated  for  six 
months'  imprisonment,  but,  considering  the  long  con- 
finement he  had  undergone,  begged  His  Majesty,  in 
all  submission,  to  consider  wTell,  in  his  gracious  kind- 
ness, the  penalty  he  had  already  suffered,  and  lighten 
his  punishment.  The  lieutenant-colonels  saw,  besides 
his  relation  to  the  girl,  the  fact  that,  through  the  order 
of  the  prince,  the  lieutenant  had  notified  Katte  to  come 
to  Potsdam,  and  had  sheltered  him  at  his  own  house  on 
the  eve  of  the  departure  for  Anspach;  they  agreed  to 
six  months'  imprisonment,  without  extenuation.  The 
colonels  came  to  the  same  conclusion,  adding  that,  if 
the  accused  had  really  informed  Katte  at  Potsdam, 
through  the  order  of  the  prince,  he  had  known  noth- 


262  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

ing  of  the  projected  "?*etirade"  (retreat).  The  gen- 
erals counted  only  the  participation  in  the  gallant  ad- 
venture, they  remarked  that  the  accused  had  never 
arranged  the  meetings;  that  he  had  only  kept  the 
prince  company;  and,  all  in  all,  carried  some  presents 
to  the  young  girl.  They  voted  three  months'  impris- 
onment in  a  fortress. 

Concerning  Lieutenant  Spaen,  the  captains  agreed 
that  the  accused  had  ordered  a  carriage  for  the  prince 
at  Leipsic,  in  the  month  of  November,  1729;  that  dur- 
ing the  journey  from  Anspach  he  had  read,  at  Berlin, 
a  letter  written  by  the  prince  to  Katte,  and  thus  knew 
the  plan;  that,  without  taking  part  in  the  affair,  he 
had  not  revealed  it,  as  wTas  his  duty;  accordingly  he 
should  be  cashiered  and  receive  two  years'  imprison- 
ment. The  majors,  for  the  same  reasons,  agreed  to 
cashiering  him  and  six  years'  imprisonment.  The  lieu- 
tenant-colonels agreed  that,  as  there  was  enough  proof 
to  presume  that  the  lieutenant  would  have  followed 
the  fugitives,  to  his  being  cashiered  and  subject  to 
arrest  in  a  fortress  until  he  should  receive  His  Maj- 
esty's pardon.  The  colonels,  who  did  not  prejudge 
the  intentions  of  the  accused,  cashiered  him  and  sub- 
jected him  to  three  years  in  the  fortress.  The  gen- 
erals cashiered  him  and  gave  him  two  years  impris- 
onment. 

Concerning  Lieutenant  Katte,  the  captains  agreed, 
that  the  first  proposition  of  flight  had  been  made  to 
the  said  lieutenant  by  the  prince,  who  afterwards  con- 
versed with  him  often  upon  the  subject  and  by  different 
ways,  but  that  the  prince  would  not  have   gone  so  far 


THE  ATTEMPT  AT  ESCAPE.  263 

in  his  project  if  Katte  had  not  supported  him  in  it, 
if  he  had  not  made  different  propositions  to  him,  pro- 
cured the  post-route,  suggested,  as  a  place  of  sojourn, 
the  estates  of  Count  Rottenburg,  offered  to  dress  ag  a 
postilion,  so  as  to  be  able  the  more  readily  to  fly  with 
him,  and  ordered,  finally,  a  gray  coat  with  silver  gal- 
loon; in  consideration  that  Katte  himself  acknowledged 
that  he  would  have  followed  the  prince  if  he  had  left 
the  country;  that  instead  of  revealing  the  design  to 
Colonel  Rochow,  as  was  his  duty,  he  had  deceived  the 
said  colonel  through  his  assurances;  in  consideration 
that  his  said  excuse,  "  that  he  would  have  tried  to  turn 
the  prince  from  his  project,"  was  void,  since  he  was 
still  ready  at  the  last  moment  to  go;  but  also,  taking 
into  account  that  he  did  not  carry  into  execution  these 
projected  plans,  he  therefore  could  not  be  punished  in 
the  customary  way  for  the  accomplished  act;  and,  to 
sum  up,  it  was  not  to  be  presumed  that  the  projects 
concerted  between  him  and  the  prince  would  ever  have 
been  accomplished  —  conformably  to  the  duties  of  their 
solemn  oath,  condemn  Katte  to  imprisonment  in  a 
fortress  for  life. 

The  majors  articled  and  numbered  the  principal  ac- 
cusations, and  omitted  no  detail,  neither  the  nego- 
tiation of  money  for  the  "echapacle"  nor  the  full 
purse  of  louis  d'or  in  readiness  for  the  desertion  —  they 
pronounced  this  word,  evaded  by  the  captains  —  nor  the 
deposit  at  the  house  of  the  accused  of  the  pretiosa,  and 
some  letters  of  the  prince,  nor  the  library  that  he  had 
ordered  to  be  sent  to  Hamburg.  They  added  the  com- 
plaints omitted  by   the  captains,   to-wit:     The  relations 


264  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

with  the  foreign  ministers,  the  intrigues  with  Hotham 
and  Guy  Dickens,  the  knowledge  of  the  letters  written 
to  the  King  of  England,  and  this  complaint,  above  all, 
that  the  accused  ought  not  to  bring  up  in  his  defence  the 
bad  treatment  that  the  Crown  Prince  received  from  his 
father,  for  it  was  unbecoming  an  officer  and  a  vassal  to 
interfere  in  affairs  between  father  and  son,  king  and 
successor.  Consequently,  they  declared,  that  although 
the  desertion  was  not  effectually  carried  out,  it  resulted 
clearly,  from  facts  enumerated,  that  Katte  merited 
death  by  the  sword. 

The  lieutenant-colonels,  in  consideration  that  this 
man  —  dieser  Mensch  —  should  have  done  everything  to 
prevent  the  thoughtless  projects  conceived  by  this 
young  seignor;  in  consideration  that,  if  the  act  had 
been  accomplished,  he  would  have  been  the  cause  of 
great  sorrow  to  His  Majesty,  and  that  other  bad  results 
would  have  been  the  consequence,  concluded:  That 
Katte  ought  to  lose  his  life  by  the  sword,  to  serve  as  an 
example;  but,  in  consequence  of  his  not  executing  com- 
pletely his  wicked  design,  and  seeing  that  from  the 
declaration  made  by  the  Crown  Prince  that,  if  the  ac- 
cused is  condemned  to  death,  His  Highness  will  never 
have  an  easy  conscience  the  remainder  of  his  life, 
they  beg  His  Majesty,  in  his  mercy,  to  lighten  the 
punishment. 

The  colonels  decided  on  death,  but  prayed  His  Maj- 
esty to  reflect  well,  in  his  goodness  and  mercy,  that 
this  enterprise,  although  fully  meditated,  had  had  no 
result  whatever;  that  there  was  much  "  youthfulness  " 
displayed   in  it  all,  and  that  the  accused  showed  great 


THE    ATTEMPT   AT    ESCAPE.  265 

and  sincere  repentance.  They  begged  His  Majesty 
then  to  commute  the  penalty  of  death  to  that  of  im- 
prisonment for  life. 

The  generals,  after  having  twice  recalled  the  fact 
that  Katte,  by  his  testimony  and  by  that  of  the  Crown 
Prince,  surrounded  with  difficulties  the  projected  flight, 
concluded  that,  after  having  duly  reflected  and  weighed 
the  matter  well — that  Katte  deserved  imprisonment  for 
life. 

Concerning  the  prince,  the  captains  declared,  first, 
that  although  they  were  in  the  position  of  judging 
him  as  an  officer,  they  could  not  regard  as  a  real  ab- 
sence—  absentirung  —  a  plan  of  flight  not  realized;  the 
prince  seemed  to  them  to  be  punished  enough  by  de- 
priving him  of  his  rank  as  colonel,  and  by  the  rigor- 
ous imprisonment  at  Ciistrin.  Then,  considering  that 
the  principal  point  of  the  accusation  rested  upon  the 
disobedience  to  the  paternal  will,  they  withdrew  their 
decision.  As  this  is  a  matter  which  concerns  father 
and  son  alone,  as  the  Crown  Prince  humiliates  himself 
before  His  Majesty,  and  submits  in  all  things  to  his 
will;  as  he  asks  for  nothing  but  his  pardon,  and  prom- 
ises to  do  everything  His  Majesty  exacts  and  com- 
mands, they  cannot,  in  their  functions  as  vassals  and 
subjects,  pronounce  sentence  upon  the  son  and  family 
of  their  king. 

The  majors,  after  having  accused  Katte  (without 
whose  agreement  and  complicity  the  design  would  have 
remained  a  mere  matter  of  discourse),  made  for  the 
prince  the  distinction,  of  which  they  refused  to  give 
Katte  the  benefit,   between  the  intention  and   the  act; 


266  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

they  also  concluded  that  the  affair  rested  between 
father  and  son;  they  recalled  the  submission  and  the 
promises  of  the  prince,  and  declared  themselves  incom- 
petent to  judge;  it  is  for  the  paternal  power  and  royal 
authority  to  punish;  the  judgment  of  a  court  of  justice 
would  be  usurping  this  power  and  authority;  neither 
officer,  vassal  nor  subject  has  the  right  to  judge  the 
son  of  the  king.  Such  a  judgment  would  not  be 
valid. 

The  lieutenant-colonels  enumerated  at  great  length 
the  complaints  against  the  prince,  but  they  partly  ex- 
onerated him  by  blaming  the  very  wicked  men  who 
had  given  him  their  counsel;  they  recalled  his  re- 
pentance, his  promises,  the  rigor  of  his  arrest,  and,  in 
consideration  that  they  could  find  neither  laws,  edicts 
nor  customs  applicable  to  the  circumstance,  declared 
that  they  could  do  nothing,  under  their  oath,  duty  and 
conscience,  but  to  place  the  prince  under  the  very  high 
and  paternal  care  of  His  Majesty. 

The  colonels,  after  having  protested  that  they  had 
weighed  this  delicate  'subject  conformably  to  the  sol- 
emn oath  that  they  had  taken  to  His  Majesty  and  all 
his  House,  felt  themselves  obliged,  according  to  their 
knowledge  and  conscience,  as  faithful  and  devoted  vas- 
sals, as  responsible  judges  not  only  before  the  world, 
but  before  the  severe  tribunal  of  God,  to  express  in  all 
obedience,  submission  and  humility,  that  they  felt 
much  too  small  and  weak  to  pass  judgment  upon  the 
person  of  His  Royal  Highness,  the  Crown  Prince. 
They  considered  that  the  projected  retreat  —  Retirade — - 
was  an  affair  of  Sti*te  and   family,  between  a  great  king 


THE  ATTEMPT  AT  ESCAPE.  267 

and  his  son;  that  it  was  an  act  relating  to  paternal 
power,  in  which  no  court-martial  or  laical  power  could 
have  the  audacity  to  meddle.  They  concluded  with 
the  repentance,  the  submission,  the  promises  of  the 
prince,  who  threw  himself  at  the  feet  of  His  Majesty, 
his  great  and  just  king,  who  was  also  the  most  gracious 
and  merciful  of  kings. 

The  generals,  after  careful  examination  of  the  acts, 
concluded,  not  only  of  themselves,  but  through  the 
avowals  and  submission  of  His  Highness,  that  the  prince 
had  offended  His  Majesty;  but  they  also  saw  that  he 
implored  in  all  humility  the  pardon  of  the  king,  his 
father.  In  their  character  of  officers  and  faithful, 
obedient  vassals,  in  virtue  of  this  innate  duty  of  the  oath 
under  which  they  were  bound  to  the  king  and  all  his 
Royal  House,  and  to  which  they  would  cling  until 
death,  they  concluded,  in  their  restricted  knowledge, 
and  after  conscientious  examination,  that  an  officer  and 
vassal  failed  in  the  fulfillment  of  his  duties  if  he  thought 
himself  authorized  to  pronounce,  on  such  a  matter,  a 
legal  sentence. 

It  now  remained  to  have  the  votum  of  the  president. 
In  comparing  the  vota  the  general  found,  in  that  which 
concerned  Keith,  unanimity  upon  the  penalty  of  death; 
in  that  which  concerned  the  prince,  unanimity  upon  the 
incompetency  of  the  council;  in  that  which  concerned 
Ingersleben,  one  voice  for  two  months'  imprisonment 
besides  that  to  which  he  had  already  been  subjected, 
one  for  six  months'  imprisonment,  with  deduction  of  the 
time  already  spent  there,  two  for  six  full  months'  im- 
prisonment,  one  for  three  months';  concerning    Spaen, 


268  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

unanimity  for  cashiering,  two  voices  for  imprisonment 
for  two  years,  one  for  six  years,  one  for  indefinite  im- 
prisonment, one  for  imprisonment  for  two  years;  con- 
cerning Katte,  two  voices  for  imprisonment  for  life, 
three  for  death. 

The  president-general  concluded  in  pronouncing  the 
penalty  of  death  upon  Keith,  and  incompetency  con- 
cerning the  judgment  of  the  prince;  for  Ingersleben,  he 
joined  his  vote  with  those  who  proposed  imprisonment  for 
six  months,  with  the  deduction  of  that  to  which  he 
had  already  submitted;  for  Spaen,  he  voted  cashiering 
and  imprisonment  for  three  years. 

The  life  of  Katte  was  in  his  hands:  he  could  save 
it  if  he  voted  for  imprisonment  for  life.  This  part  of 
his  votum  was  as  lengthy  as  all  the  other  articles  put 
together.  He  therein  expounds  that,  if  Katte  had  given 
bad  advice  to  the  prince  and  promised  several  different 
times  his  aid  in  the  flight,  the  plan  was  never  actually 
accomplished;  that  there  was  never  either  place  or  day 
fixed,  and  for  this  reason  there  is  lacking  the  conditions 
for  the  execution  of  a  certain  and  infallible  project. 
In  consideration  that  his  good  sense  could  not  prevent 
him  from  thinking  that,  even  for  the  greatest  crimes 
there  was  a  difference  between  the  perpetration  and 
the  preparation,  according  to  his  knowledge  and  con- 
science, and  the  solemn  oath  to  which  he  was  bound, 
he  could  not  conclude  for  the  penalty  of  death,  and 
joined  those  who  were  for  life  imprisonment. 

Consequently  the  judgment  was  rendered,  through 
which  the  court-martial,  upon  a  resume  of  the  vota, 
remitted  the  Crown   Prince  to  the    very  high  and    pa- 


THE    ATTEMPT   AT    ESCAPE.  269 

ternal  grace  of  His  Majesty,  condemned  Katte  to  per- 
petual fortress  imprisonment;  Keith  to  execution  in 
effigy, after  the  customary  citations;  Spaen  to  the  an- 
nulment of  his  office  and  three  years  of  the  fortress; 
Ingersleben  to  six  months  of  fortress,  with  deduction 
of  imprisonment  to  which  he  had  already  submitted. 

This  judgment  was  rendered  by  brave  as  well  as 
shrewd  people.  Upon  them  weighed  the  terror  spread 
throughout  the  court  and  army,  the  hidden  desire  of 
the  king,  the  feeling  that,  in  judging  the  son  and  his 
accomplices  they  were  judging  the  father  also,  that  is  to 
say,  their  master,  and  this  before  the  kingdom,  before 
Germany,  Europe.  To  absolve  the  son  was  to  condemn 
the  father;  but  to  condemn  the  son,  what  injustice!  It 
was  too  evident  that  the  son  had  good  reasons  for  flight. 
The  accused,  whom  the  judges  had  before  them,  was 
not  a  Colonel  Frederick  guilty  of  attempted  desertion; 
he  was  a  son,  beaten,  outraged  and  dishonored  by  his 
father.  This  son  was  a  prince,  a  Royal  Prince,  the 
Kronprinz  of  Prussia.  To  distinguish  between  the 
two  positions  of  Crown  Prince  and  colonel  was  impos- 
sible. The  first,  which  included  the  second,  was  be- 
yond the  judgment  of  a  court-martial. 

In  our  days,  in  the  limited  and  disputed  monarchies, 
the  person  of  the  prince  remains  privileged.  Even  in  our 
Republic  (France)  the  inheritors  to  the  rights  of  a  broken 
crown,  whose  diamonds  have  been  sold  at  auction,  are 
placed  above  the  common  law,  and  submitted,  as  if  they 
were  exceptional  beings,  to  exceptional  laws.  There  is, 
for  them,  when  they  fall  under  the  ban  of  these  laws, 
a  particular  regime  of  prison  life,  and  a  lodging    in  the 


270  FREDERICK   THE    GREAT. 

tower  of  the  old  Palace  of  Saint  Louis.  Why  should 
the  Prussians,  a  century  and  a  half  ago,  subjects  of  a 
budding  royalty,  which  was  the  cause  of  the  ex- 
istence of  the  Fatherland,  or  rather  was  itself  the 
Fatherland  —  why,  I  repeat,  should  they  not  feel  them- 
selves too  small,  too  "weak,"  too  "powerless,"  as  the 
judges  at  Kopenick  said,  to  judge  the  inheritor  of  their 
crown?  And  so  it  was  necessary  that  the  court-martial 
should  send  the  son  to  his  father:  which  was  done,  but 
with  all  kinds  of  precautions. 

The  judges  weighed  their  words,  one  by  one.  They 
accorded,  without  caviling  at  a  detail,  the  wrong  of  the 
premeditation,  and  the  preparatory  acts  for  flight,  but 
they  sought  and  found,  in  order  to  designate  the  act  not 
criminal,  words  which  diminished,  attenuated,  and 
finally  did  away  with  it  altogether:  Retirade,  JEchapade, 
Absentirung .  They  placed,  above  all,  the  wrong  of 
disobedience  to  the  father  and  king,  so  as  to  send  him 
back  to  the  father  and  king,  as  the  only  competent 
judge.  Of  this  judgment,  even,  they  pre-judged  ad- 
roitly, delicately,  forcing  the  pardon  through  the  ex- 
pression of  submission  and  repentance  of  the  culprit. 
In  the  drawing  up  of  the  judgment  they  gave  to  the 
prince  his  honors,  the  title  of  Highness  that  the  king 
had  crossed  off,  the  name  of  Crown  Prince,  of  which 
he  had  been  divested.  They  made  the  king  under- 
stand that  their  innate  duty  of  fidelity  was  addressed 
not  only  to  one,  but  to  all  his  House.  They  excused 
themselves  in  meaning  implied,  although  unexpressed, 
by  doing  only  what  they  supposed  to  be  his  will,  on 
their  devotion,  profound   respect,  and  religious  fidelity, 


THE    ATTEMPT    AT    ESCAPE.  271 

# 

and  then  retired,  after  a  salute  as  officers  to  their 
chief,  after  an  obeisance  as  vassals  before  the  king, 
their  sovereign. 

As  for  the  principal  accomplice,  Katte,  all  the 
world  believed  him  lost  in  advance.  "  He  will  not," 
wrote  the  French  minister,  "  be  spared  the  loss  of  his 
head."  "  He  will  have  much  trouble,"  said  Grumbkow, 
"in  getting  out  of  this  affair."  Without  doubt,  this 
opinion  had  its  influence  upon  the  judges,  and  perhaps 
they  wished,  without  acknowledging  it,  to  do,  in  some 
points,  the  will  of  the  king.  Besides,  Katte  was  very 
guilty.  He  was  really  an  officer  who  wished  to  desert. 
Through  obedience  to  the  future  master,  he  revolted 
against  the  then  present  master.  It  is  certain  that  he 
"strengthened"  the  prince  in  his  design,  when  a  refusal 
to  be  his  accomplice  would  have  ended  in  the  abandon- 
ment of  the  project,  and  certain  also  that  his  ambition 
assisted  his  chivalrous  devotion  to  the  prince.  In  strict 
justice,  he  was  liable  to  the  penalty  of  death;  but  what 
injustice  is  strict  justice!  The  extenuating  circum- 
stances were  numerous  in  the  trial:  this,  primarily,  that 
the  prince,  the  principal  one  accused,  was  not  con- 
demned; then  the  execution  had  not  followed  the  inten- 
tion; lastly,  the  "amount  of  youthf  ulness  "  in  it  all.  Two 
votes  accorded  to  Katte  the  benefit  of  extenuating  cir- 
cumstances; two  others  pronounced  the  penalty  of 
death,  adding  a  petition  to  the  king  to  accord  this  bene- 
fit to  the  condemned;  one  alone,  that  of  the  majors, 
voted  for  death  without  a  reticent  phrase. 

Lieutenant-Gen eral  Schulenburg,  an  honest  and  very 
religious  man  (who  was  seventy  years   old,  and   conse- 


272  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

quently  neither  feared  nor  hoped  for  anything  more 
from  man),  put  in  the  urn  the  vote  of  Minerva.  Thanks 
to  him,  the  judges  of   Kopenick  gave  good  judgment. 

THE    JUSTICE    OF    THE    KING. 

On  receipt  of  the  judgment,  the  king  wrote  the  fol- 
lowing note,  in  which  there  are  two  illegible  words: 
Votum  Megiis  (sic). 

< 'They  must  judge  according  to  the  law,  and  not 
beat  about  the  bush,  and  as  Katte  has  well  .  .  .  ,  the 
court-martial  will  have  to  convene  again  and  .  .  .  judge 
otherwise  .   .   ."204 

Several  days  after,  commenting  on  this  order,  he  ac- 
cused the  judges  of  vile  intentions.  "I  thought  that 
I  had  found  men  of  honor,  who  would  not  forget  their 
duty,  who  would  not  adore  the  Rising  Sun,  and  would 
consult  alone  their  conscience  and  the  honor  of  their 
king."  He  called  the  judgment  an  " infidelity  com- 
mitted against  him,"  the  'cause  of  which  was  that  these 
people  were  already  " looking  toward  the  future." 
These  people  he  knew  better  now,  and  he  promised 
himself  that  he  would  not  lose  an  occasion  "to  anni- 
hilate those  who  upheld  his  children  against  him."  So 
he  felt  himself  condemned  by  this  leniency:  "They 
wished  to  have  this  project  of  the  prince  and  his  courti- 
ers pass  off  as  a  childish  prank,  which  would  not  de- 
serve such  a  punishment."  205 

The  note  of  the  king  was  sent  to  the  president  gen- 
eral who  wrote  on  the  back: — The  Fifth  Book  of  Moses 
(Deuteronomy),  Chapter  XVI.,  verses  8  to  12;  Second 
Book  of  Samuel,  Chapter  XVIII.,  verses  10  to  12;  Sec- 


THE    ATTEMPT    AT    ESCAPE.  273 

ond  Book  of  Chronicles,  Chapter  XIX.,  verses  5,  6 
and  7. 

The  Holy  Scriptures  say  in  the  passages  cited  from 
Samuel: 

"  10.  And  a  certain  man  saw  it,  and  told  Joab,  and 
said,  Behold,  I  saw  Absalom  hanged  in  an  oak.  11. 
And  Joab  said  unto  the  man  that  told  him,  and  behold, 
thou  sawest  him,  and  why  didst  thou  not  smite  him 
there  to  the  ground?  and  I  would  have  given  thee 
ten  shekels  of  silver,  and  a  girdle.  12.  And  the  man 
said  unto  Joab,  though  I  should  receive  a  thousand 
shekels  of  silver  in  mine  hand,  yet  would  I  not  put 
forth  mine  hand  against  the  king's  son:  for  in  our  hear- 
ing the  king  charged  thee  and  Abishai  and  Ittai,  say- 
ing, Beware  that  none  touch  the  young  man  Absalom." 

The  Holy  Scriptures  say,  in  the  passage  cited  from 
Chronicles: 

"5.  And  he  set  judges  in  the  land  throughout  all 
the  fenced  cities  of  Judah,  city  by  city.  6.  And 
said  to  the  judges,  Take  heed  what  ye  do:  for  ye 
judge  not  for  man,  but  for  the  Lord,  wTho  is  with 
you  in  the  judgment.  7.  Wherefore  now  let  the 
fear  of  the  Lord  be  upon  you;  take  heed  and  do  it; 
for  there  is  no  iniquity  with  the  Lord  our  God,  nor 
respect  of  persons,  nor  taking  of  gifts." 

In  the  citation  from  Deuteronomy  the  Scripture 
says: 

"8.  Six  days  shalt  thou  eat  unleavened  bread:  and 
on  the  seventh  shall  be  a  solemn  assembly  to  the  Lord 
thy  God:  thou  shalt  do  no  work  therein.  9.  Seven 
weeks  shalt  thou  number  unto  thee:    begin  to  number 


274  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

the  seven  weeks  from  such  time  as  thou  beginnest  to 
put  the  sickle  to  the  corn.  10.  And  thou  shalt  keep 
the  feast  of  weeks  unto  the  Lord  thy  God,  with  a 
tribute  of  free-will  offering  of  thine  hand,  which  thou 
shalt  give  unto  the  Lord  thy  God,  according  as  the 
Lord  thy  God  hath  blessed  thee:  11.  And  thou  shalt 
rejoice  before  the  Lord  thy  God,  thou,  and  thy  son, 
and  thy  daughter,  and  thy  man-servant,  and  thy  maid- 
servant, and  the  Levite  that  is  within  thy  gates,  and 
the  stranger,  and  the  fatherless,  and  the  widow,  that 
are  among  you,  in  the  place  which  the  Lord  thy  God 
hath  chosen  to  place  his  name  there." 

Thus  the  Scripture  forbids,  in  the  Book  of  Samuel, 
" laying  hands  on  the  king's  son;"  it  orders  in  Chron- 
icles "to  judge  not  for  man."  It  wishes  that  he  who 
has  put  "the  sickle  to  the  corn,"  in  shutting  his  son 
up  in  the  prison  of  Ciistrin  seven  weeks  before,  "shall 
keep  the  feast  of  weeks  unto  the  Lord  his  God,  and  re- 
joice in  the  presence  of  the  Lord,  he,  and  his  son,  and 
his  daughter."  The  judges,  who  had  founded  thus 
their  judgment  upon  God  and  the  Holy  Scriptures,  could 
not  modify  it  for  the  note  of  a  king.  The  court-martial 
met  again  for  the  second  time,  the  31st  of  October 
and  maintained  the  vote  that  its  president  expressed  in 
these  terms:  "After  having  again  matured  and  reflected 
well,  as  to  whether  the  sentence  pronounced  could  remain 
intact,  I  find  myself  convinced,  on  my  conscience,  that  I 
have  voted  according  to  my  best  knowledge  and  con- 
science, and  according  to  the  solemn  oath  under  which 
I  am  bound,  and  it  must  remain  unchanged.  To  change 
it  would  be  against  my  conscience,  and  is  not  in  my 
power."206 


THE  ATTEMPT  AT  ESCAPE.  275 

Then  the  king  judged  in  his  turn.  He  declared  him- 
self satisfied  with  the  judgments  concerning  Lieuten- 
ants Spaen  and  Ingersleben, — he  even  pardoned  the 
latter,  in  consideration  of  the  long  arrest  to  which  he 
had  already  been  subjected.  "Concerning  Lieutenant 
Katte  and  his  crime,  and  the  sentence  passed  on  him  by 
the  court-martial,  His  Majesty,  it  is  true,-  is  not  accus- 
tomed to  increase  the  judgments  of  the  court-martials; 
ordinarily  they  are  made  lighter  than  otherwise,  but 
this  Katte  is  not  only  an  officer  in  the  service  of  my 
army;  he  is  one  of  my  Body  Guard.  And  if,  in 
the  whole  army,  all  my  officers  must  be  faithful  to 
me,  the  greater  reason  for  having  that  kind  of  officers 
in  regiments  such  as  this  one,  which  is  privileged  to  be 
immediately  attached  to  the  very  high  person  of  His 
Royal  Majesty  and  his  royal  House  .  .  .  So,  as  this 
Katte  has  plotted  desertion  with  "To-morrow's  Sun," 
and  as  he  has  intrigued  with  Foreign  Ministers  and 
Envoys  .  .  .  His  Majesty  does  not  know  what  bad 
reasons  have  prevented  the  court-martial  from  condemn- 
ing him  to  death.  According  to  this  way  of  acting,  His 
Majesty  can  no  longer  trust  either  in  his  officers  or  ser- 
vitors that  are  on  oath  and  duty  at  present;  for  things 
which  happen  once  in  the  world  can  often  come  to  pass 
afterward,  and  there  are  those  who  would  do  the  same 
thing,  taking  example  from  that  which  happened  to 
Katte,  if  he  found  himself  getting  out  of  the  difficulty 
so  easily  and  so  well;  they  would  believe  that  the  same 
thing  would  happen  to  them.  His  Majesty  also  went 
to  school  in  his  youth,  learned  there  the  Latin  maxim: 
Fiat  jits titia  et  pereat  mundus.     He  intends  then,   that 


276  FREDERICK   THE    GREAT. 

by  the  law,  Katte — although  conformably  to  it  he  merits, 
on  account  of  the  crime  committed  of  leze-majesty,  to  be 
tortured  with  hot  tongs  and  hung  —  must  be  deprived 
of  life,  out  of  consideration  for  his  family,  by  means 
of  the  sword.  In  announcing  the  sentence  of  Katte, 
the  council  should  say  it  is  done  with  great  sorrow  by 
His  Majesty,  but  that  it  is  better  that  he  should  die, 
than  that  justice  should  have  no  place  m  the  world."  207 

A  terrible  letter,  since  it  gives  death;  awful  in  its 
tone — so  serious,  solemn  and  unconstrained.  But  this 
judge,  must  in  his  turn,  be  judged.  In  law,  he  had  rea- 
son. Katte  wished  to  desert.  He  conspired  with  the 
Foreign  Ministers;  he  had  committed  an  act  of  high 
treason;  but  ought  not  the  king  to  have  searched  his 
own  heart,  and  sought  to  find  his  responsibility,  and 
acknowledge,  finally,  that  he  himself  had  been  culpable 
towards  the  prince,  and  that  his  son,  on  the  other  side, 
had  been  the  instigator  of  Katte's  crime?  In  equity, 
before  God,  he  owed  a  reparation  of  his  wrongs  to- 
wards his  son,  and  of  the  wrongs  of  his  son  towards 
Katte,  and  this  reparation  was  clemency;  but  just  that 
which  was  the  true  extenuating  circumstance  in  Katte's 
favor,  namely,  that  the  initiative  came  from  the»  prince, 
aggravated  the  crime  in  the  eyes  of  the  king. 

It  is  no  longer  the  impartial  judge  that  speaks  of 
the  schemes  plotted  with  the  "  Rising  Sun;"  it  is 
Frederick  William,  with  his  passions,  uneasiness  and 
jealousy.  He  represents  to  himself  what  will  come  to 
pass  at  the  "Rising"  of  this  "Sun:"  The  doors  of 
the  fortress  will  open  for  Katte,  and  King  Frederick, 
second  of  the  name,  and  Katte,  his  favorite,   will  mock 


THE    ATTEMPT    AT    ESCAPE.  277 

him  when  he  will  be  resting  in  his  tomb.  In  the 
meanwhile,  the  world  will  think  that  "this  project  of 
the  prince  and  his  courtiers  is  nothing  but  a  childish 
prank."  If  the  trial  ends  with  the  sentence  of  the 
court-martial,  it  is  the  king  who  will  lose.  The  rea- 
sons of  public  discipline  and  military  honor  that  he 
gives  in  his  considerations  are  grave  and  just;  he  says 
them  sincerely,  but  he  deceives  himself  if  he  thinks 
he  has  no  others  more  secret  than  these — others  that 
stir  the  very  depths  of  a  conscience  and  determine  it. 
He  wished  to  avenge  and  justify  himself  at  one  and 
the  same  time;  for  this,  was  necessary,  not  the  pen — 
but  the  sword. 

THE    EXECUTION    OF    KATTE. 

On  November  2,  Katte  was  led  before  the  court- 
martial.  Kept  in  rigorous  secrecy,  watched  over  as  a 
prey,  he  had  wavered  during  those  long  weeks  between 
fear  and  hope. 

When  the  judges  read  their  sentence  and  that  of  the 
king,  he  accepted  with  a  good  grace:  "I  resign  myself," 
said  he,  "to  the  will  of  Providence  and  the  king.  I 
have  committed  no  bad  action,  and  if  I  die,  it  is  in  a  good 
cause."  He  tried,  however,  to  save  his  life.  He  wrote 
to  his  grandfather,  Field  Marshal  von  Alvensleben,  to 
beg  him  to  intercede  with  the  king.  He  hoped  no 
longer  for  the  influence  of  his  father.  General  Katte, 
had,  in  fact,  after  his  son's  arrest,  addressed  a  suppli- 
ant letter  to  the  king,  but  obtained  no  other  response 
than  this:  "Your  son  is  of  the  canaille;  mine  also; 
we  can  do  nothing  for  either   one  of   them."     The  old 


278  FREDERICK   THE    GREAT. 

Field  Marshal  would  perhaps  have  a  better  answer. 
Katte  begged  him  to  see  that  the  following  supplication, 
all  burning  with  a  vivid  passion  to  live,  should  reach 
the  king:  "The  error  of  my  youth,  my  weakness,  my 
foolishness,  my  mind,  that  thought  not  of  the  evil,  my 
heart  filled  with  love  and  pity,  the  vain  illusion  of  my 
youth,  which  hid  not  bad  designs,  asks,  in  all  humility, 
pardon,  mercy,  compassion,  pity,  clemency."  He  recom- 
mended himself  to  God,  King  and  Master  of  masters, 
who  makes  mercy  pass 'the  bands  of  the  law,  and  through 
His  kindness  leads  those  who  strayed  away  to  the  right 
path  again.  He  quoted  the  examples  of  noted  peni- 
tents: "  Saul,"  said  he,  "  did  not  disobey  so  far,  nor  did 
David  have  so  great  a  thirst  for  evil  that  they  did  not 
have,  at  least,  sincerity  in  their  conversion." 

A  most  touching  letter,  notwithstanding  its  affected 
style:  "A  dying  tree  is  even  spared  when  there  is  hope 
of  saving  it.  Why  not  my  tree,  which  already  shows 
fresh  buds  of  new  submission  and  fidelity,  why  cannot 
it  find  pardon  from  Your  Majesty?  Why  must  it  fall, 
while  yet  in  blossom?" 

In  transmitting  this  despairing  appeal  to  the  king, 
Alvensleben  joined  thereto  his  supplications.  He  hoped 
that  his  most  gracious  seignior  "would  barken  to  the 
prayers  and  tears  of  a  very  old  man."  He  would  bear 
all  pain  for  his  grandson.  He  only  asked  for  "  the  life 
of  the  unfortunate  one,  so  that  he  might  ponder  well 
over  his  faults,  repent  earnestly,  and  so  save  his  soul." 
"The  All-powerful  God  will  bounteously  restore,"  said 
he,  "to  Your  Royal  Majesty  that  which  you  will  give 
in  your  great  mercy  to   an  old   man   bowed  down   with 


THE  ATTEMPT  AT  ESCAPE.  279 

grief."  He  recalled  the  sacrifice  of  his  life  so  often 
offered  to  the  Empire,  the  fidelity  with  which  he  had 
served  His  Royal  Majesty,  and  the  dangers  the  father  of 
the  unfortunate  one  had  encountered  so  frequently  in  the 
service  of  the  said  Majesty,  and  of  his  Royal  House. 
"  I  hold  in  all  submission  the  confidence  that  Your 
Royal  Majesty,  since  these  few  drops-  of  blood  can  no 
longer  serve  you,  will  deign  to  return  our  son  to  us, 
for  our  prayer  and  tears,  and  that  you  will  not  wish 
my  gray  hairs  to  be  borne  to  the  tomb  with  such  a 
sorrow."  208 

The  king  replied  that  he  was  pained  to  the  heart  on 
account  of  the  misfortune  that  had  come  to  Lieutenant 
Katte,  since  he  was  so  near  and  dear  to  the  field  mar- 
shal. But  he  recalled  the  considerations  of  the  con- 
demnation pronounced  by  him.  "I  am  not  in  a  con- 
dition to  pardon  him,"  said  he.  He  forbade  a  renew- 
ing of  the  intercession:  "In  this  affair  no  one  can 
meddle,  unless  I  give  the  order."  All  the  grace  he 
could  give  he  had  already  given.  "This  man  much 
deserved  being  torn  with  red-hot  tongs.  However,  in 
consideration  of  the  General  Field  Marshal  and  Lieu- 
tenant-General  Katte,  I  have  mitigated  the  penalty,  in 
ordering  that,  for  the  example  and  warning  of  others, 
he  must  have  his  head  cut  off.  I  am  your  most  affec- 
tionate king."209 

The  3d  of  November,  Frederick  William  informed 
General  Lepell  that  Katte  was  to  be  taken  to  Ciistrin 
to  be  beheaded.  The  execution  should  take  place  under 
the  windows  of  the  prince.  "  If  this  place  is  not  large 
enough,  another  must  be  chosen,  where  the  prince  can 


280  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

see  it  well."  210  The  same  day  Major  Schack,  of  the  Body 
Guard,  presented  himself  with  an  escort  of  thirty  men 
before  the  prison; 2n  he  entered  Katte's  cell.  "I  have  the 
order  from  His  Majesty,"  said  he  to  Katte,  "to  be 
present  at  your  execution.  Twice  I  have  refused,  but 
I  must  obey.  God  knows  what  it  will  cost  me  !  May 
Heaven  grant  that  the  king's  heart  may  be  changed, 
and  that  at  the  last  moment  I  may  have  the  joy  to  an- 
nounce to  you  your  pardon."  "You  are  most  kind," 
said  Katte;  "lam  content  with  my  fate.  I  die  for  a 
seignior  that  I  love,  and  I  have  the  consolation  of  giv- 
ing him  by  my  death  the  greatest  proof  of  my  de- 
votion." 

In  the  carriage  which  took  him  away  was  seated  Com- 
mander Schack,  a  sub-officer,  and  the  Reverend  Muller, 
Chaplain  of  the  regiment  of  the  Body  Guard.  As  soon 
as  the  cortege  had  left  the  city  the  Chaplain  commenced 
to  intone  Psalms,  among  which  was  this  one:  "  Far 
from  my  thoughts,  vain  world,  begone;"  and  when 
they  arrived  at  the  place  where  they  were  to  spend  the 
night,  Katte  expressed  a  desire  to  write  to  his  father; 
they  left  him  alone,  but  when  the  major-general  re- 
entered he  found  him  walking  to  and  fro.  "It  is  too 
hard  a  task,"  said  he.  "  I  am  so  troubled  that  I  cannot 
make  a  beginning."  He  wrote  it,  however,  and  it  was 
a  sincere,  beautiful  letter. 

He  stirred  up  his  very  inmost  thoughts.  He  re- 
called the  trouble  his  father  had  taken  to  give  him  an 
education,  in  the  hope  that  his  old  age  would  be  com- 
forted with  the  success  of  his  son.  He  too  had  thought 
to  promote  himself  in  the  world.      "How  I  believed  in 


THE    ATTEMPT    AT    ESCAPE.  281 

my  good  fortune,  my  happiness;  how  I  was  filled  with 
the  certainty  of  vanity  !  Vain  hope  !  Of  what  empti- 
ness are  the  thoughts  of  men  composed  !  How  sadly 
the  scene  of  my  life  ends  !  How  different  my  present 
state  to  that  which  I  imagined  in  my  dreams  !  I  must, 
instead  of  following  the  road  to  honor  and  glory, 
take  that  which  leads  to  shame  and  a  criminal's 
death!"  But  this  road  God  had  chosen  for  him:  the 
ways  of  God  are  not  those  of  the  world,  and  the 
ways  of  men  are  not  those  of  God!  " Cursed  ambi- 
tion, which  glides  into  the  heart  from  early  child- 
hood," destroys  you  by  separating  you  from  God  for- 
ever. "Understand  well,  my  father,  and  truly  believe 
that  it  is  God  who  disposes  of  me,  God,  without 
whose  will  nothing  can  happen,  not  even  the  fall  of  a 
sparrow  to  the  ground  .  .  .  The  harder,  the  more  bit- 
ter the  form  of  death,  the  more  agreeable  and  sweet  the 
hope  of  salvation  !  What  is  the  shame  and  dishonor  of 
this  death,  in  comparison  to  the  great  future?  Console 
yourself,  my  father  !  God  has  given  you  other  sons, 
to  whom  He  will  accord,  perhaps,  more  happiness  in 
this  world,  and  who  will  give  to  you,  my  father,  the 
joy  for  which  you  have  vainly  hoped  from  me,  and  this,  I 
sincerely  desire,  will  come  to  pass.  I  thank  you  with 
a  filial  respect  for  the  true  paternal  love  you  have 
shown  toward  me  from  my  infancy  to  this  day.  May 
the  All-powerful  God  render  to  you  a  hundred-fold  this 
love  that  you  have  given  me!  May  He  spare  you  to 
a  ripe  old  age!  May  He  nourish  you  in  happiness,  and 
quench  your  thirst  with  the  grace  of  His  Holy  Spirit ! "  212 
He  added  a  few  words  for  his  father's  wife,  whom  he 


282  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

had  loved  as  if  she  had  been  his  own  mother,  and  for  his 
brothers  and  sisters,  excusing  himself  for  not  expressing 
his  whole  thought  at  length.  "I  am  at  the  portals  of 
death!  I  must  think  of  entering  with  a  pure  heart  and 
sanctified  soul.  I  have  no  time  to  lose!"  He  wished 
however  to  make  a  copy  of  his  letter,  written  on  a  loose 
sheet  of  paper,  but,  the  pastor  having  told  him  that  his 
time  was  too  precious,  he  had  to  be  content  with  request- 
ing the  Major  to  make  a  cleaner  copy.  He  ate  and 
drank,  and  then  commenced  a  spiritual  conversation 
with  the  pastor.  His  piety  exalting  him,  he  made  him- 
self believe  that  he  was  going  to  the  scaffold  with  joy, 
and  that,  if  it  had  been  permitted  him  to  choose 
between  life  and  death,  he  would  have  taken  death,  for 
never  again  would  he  be  so  well  prepared.  At  ten 
o'clock,  after  being  prayed  for,  he  went  to  bed  and  slept 
profoundly. 

The  next  day,  along  the  route,  he  denied  ever  having 
been  an  atheist.  Of  course,  he  had  oftentimes  sus- 
tained the  thesis  of  atheism,  but  it  was  to  make  his  bril- 
liancy admired;  for  he  had  remarked,  in  the  bright  con- 
versations of  society,  this  appeared  to  be  a  charm.  They 
stopped  over  night  once  more  en  route;  for  this  journey 
towards  death,  which  could  have  been  ended  in  one  day, 
was  made  by  order,  with  desperate  slowness.  In  the 
evening,  Katte  was  calm,  and  drank  his  coffee,  his  favorite 
beverage,  with  pleasure. 

Towards  noon,  on  the  5th  of  November,  they  were  in 
sight  of  Custrin.  As  the  escort  arrived  at  the  bridge  of 
the  Oder,  the  rain  which  had  been  falling  incessantly, 
stopped  ;  a  ray  of  sunshine  appeared.       "  That  is  a  good 


THE  ATTEMPT  AT  ESCAPE  283 

• 

sign,"  said  he,  "here  begins  the  sunshine  of  grace  for 
me."  Did  he  speak  only  of  the  divine  grace?  But 
Colonel  Reichmann  was  already  there  to  receive  the  pris- 
oner, at  the  door  of  the  fortress.  He  took  him  by  the 
hand  and  led  him  to  a  room  above  the  entrance  gate; 
two  beds  had  been  prepared  there,  one  for  Katte,  the 
other  for  the  pastor.  Schack  learned  then  from  the  Col- 
onel that  the  execution  was  to  be  the  following  day  at 
7  o'clock,  and  that  he  must  lead  the  condemned,  escorted 
by  his  thirty  troopers,  into  a  circle  of  one  hundred  and 
fifty  men  taken  from  the  garrison.  He  immediately 
went  to  Katte  and  said  with  a  trembling  heart :  "  Your 
end  is  perhaps  nearer  than  you  think."  Without  flinch- 
ing, Katte  said:  "When?"  And,  upon  the  Major's 
answer:  "  So  much  the  better;  the  sooner  it  is  ended 
the  more  contented  will  I  be." 

Charitable  souls  were  employed  in  making  this  last 
journey  more  comfortable.  General  Lepell  sent  him  a 
repast  with  some  beer  and  wine.  The  President  of  the 
Chamber  of  Domains,  Munchow,  sent  him  a  second 
meal,  with  some  Hungarian  wine.  Katte  did  honor  to 
both  repasts.  The  Reverend  Miiller  sent  for  his  col- 
league, the  Chaplain  of  the  garrison  of  Custrin,  whose 
assistance  he  implored.  The  religious  conversations  be- 
gan again.  Night  came  on.  At  eight  o'clock,  Schack 
and  other  officers  entered  the  room,  and  they  prayed  and 
sang  with  the  pastors  and  Katte.  An  hour  after,  upon 
the  request  of  the  two  ministers,  who  wished  to  remain 
alone  with  the  condemned,  they  retired. 

It  was  perhaps  on  this  last  night  that  Katte  wrote  a 
few  words  to  the  prince.     He  said  that  he  was  leaving 


284  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

• 

the  world  without  blaming  him  in  the  least  for  the  cause 
of  his  death,  and  without  having  any  ill-feelings  toward 
him;  that  God  had  led  him  through  this  rugged  path  so 
as  to  awaken  and  excite  his  true  repentance;  that  the 
main  reason  of  his  unhappiness  was  his  ambition,  and 
his  contempt  for  God.  He  prayed  the  prince  not  to 
bear  any  anger  toward  the  king  since  his  death  was  only 
an  act  of  God's  justice;  to  submit  to  the  Royal  Majesty 
of  his  father  who  was  his  seignior  and  king.  He  im- 
plored him  through  Christ's  wounds,  to  be  obedient  to 
His  Majesty,  and  to  remember  the  divine  promises  of  the 
fourth  Commandment.  He  hoped  that  his  misfortune 
would  teach  the  prince  the  emptiness  of  designs  to  which 
God  has  not  consented,  for  the  prince  had  desired  to 
heap  Katte  with  benefits  and  grandeur,  and  behold  to 
what  end  all  these  fine  projects  had  led!  May  the  prince 
ponder  these  things  well,  and  give  his  heart  to  God.213 

Among  these  counsels  and  exhortations  to  piety  tow- 
ards the  king  and  towards  God,  Katte  glided  his  personal 
justification;  he  called  the  prince  to  witness  that  he  had 
once  implored  him  to  submit  to  the  Majesty  of  his  father, 
citing  the  example  of  Absalom  to  him,  and  that  he  had 
given  him  some  stirring  example  of  it  in  the  encamp- 
ment in  Saxony,  and  again  in  his  nocturnal  visit  to  Pots- 
dam. Why  these  lines  for  his  defence  under  which  lie 
reproaches  aimed  at  the  prince?  It  seems  to  me,  with- 
out acknowledging  it  to  himself,  the  unfortunate  man 
had  still  some  hope  left.  A  counter-order  would  per- 
chance arrive.  Or  perhaps  this  testament  would  pass 
under  the  notice  of  the  king,  and  the  king  would  be 
touched  in  meeting,  among  these  effusions  of  piety,  this 
discreet  protestation. 


THE  ATTEMPT  AT  ESCAPE.  285 

The  hours  passed.  At  11  o'clock,  Schack,  who  could 
not  sleep,  entered  the  room  again.  More  troubled  than 
Katte,  he  had  need  of  strengthening  himself  with  the 
courage  of  the  accused.  Until  one  o'clock  he  prayed 
and  sung  with  him.  He  thought  he  saw  from  the  color 
of  the  prisoner's  face  that  flesh  and  blood  were  struggling 
with  will.  At  the  pastor's  request,  Katte  retired  about 
three  o'clock,  and  went  to  sleep.  He  was  awakened  two 
hours  after  by  the  changing  of  sentinels. 

At  the  same  hour,  Colonel  Reichmann  and  a  captain 
entered  the  prince's  chamber  and  awakened  him.  Fred- 
erick was  ignorant  of  the  judgment  of  the  court-mar- 
tial, the  sentence  of  the  king,  and  that  his  friend  had 
passed  the  night  near  him.  We  do  not  know  exactly 
how  he  endured  his  prison  life.  It  was  said  at  Berlin, 
that  he  was  sick,  "that  he  threatened  ruin,"  and  that  the 
designs  of  Grumbkow  and  Seckendorff,  agreed  to  by  the 
king,  were  going  to  be  accomplished.  Grumbkow,  on 
the  contrary,  pretended  that  the  prince  was  very  gay  and 
in  good  health;  that,  if  he  remained  in  bed,  it  was  to 
evade  the  trouble  of  dressing  himself;  that  he  was  still 
impertinent :  when  they  told  him  his  expenses  were  to  be 
reduced  to  eight  groschens,  he  replied  that  as  long  as  he 
had  to  starve,  he  would  rather  be  atCiistrin  than  at  Pots- 
dam.214 It  is  probable  that  between  these  contradictory 
statements  Grumbkow's  has  the  most  truth  in  it.  Fred- 
erick did  not  think  he  was  threatened  with  death,  and  he 
could  not  refrain  from  his  usual  custom  of  indulging  in 
dangerous  pleasantry.  He  suffered  principally  from 
ennui,  but  his  friends  lightened  this  trouble ;  in  spite  of 
the  king's  interdict,  they  passed  books  to  him,  and  Fred- 


286  FREDERICK   THE    GREAT. 

erick  found  delightful  even  the  books  read  in  a  prison 
by  the  light  of  a  candle.  He  also  had  pen  and  paper  at 
his  disposal  and  means  of  communicating  with  outside 
parties,  for  on  November  1st  he  addressed  the  following 
letter  to  his  sister  : 

My  Dear  Sister  : 

They  are  going  to  make  me  out  a  heretic,  after  the  court- 
martial  is  finished  that  is  at  present  pending  ;  for  it  only  needs, 
to  pass  for  a  heretic,  not  to  be  of  the  same  opinion  as  the  mas- 
ter. You  can  judge  then,  without  much  trouble,  of  the  nice 
way  they  will  treat  me.  The  anathemas,  pronounced  against 
me  will  disturb  me  very  little,  provided  that  I  know  my  gentle 
sister  inscribes  herself  my  champion.  What  a  pleasure  to  me 
to  know  that  neither  bolts  nor  bars  prevent  me  from  show- 
ing my  true  friendship  for  you.  Yes,  my  dear  sister,  there 
still  remain  some  honest  people  in  this  half  corrupted  century, 
to  give  me  means  of  proving  my  love  for  you.  Yes,  my  dear 
sister,  provided  I  know  that  you  are  happy,  the  prison  will 
become  to  me  an  abode  of  happiness  and  contentment.  Chi  ha 
tempo  ha  vita!  Let  us  console  ourselves  with  that.  From 
the  bottom  of  my  heart,  I  wish  that  we  need  have  no  in- 
terpreter to  talk  with  each  other,  and  that  we  could  go  over 
again  those  happy  days  when  your  principe  and  my  prinei- 
pessa  kissed  each  other,  or,  to  speak  in  plainer  terms,  when  I 
shall  have  the  pleasure  of  conversing  with  you  myself — 
nothing  can  diminish  my  friendship  for  you.    Adieu, 

The  Prisoner.215 

Chi  ha  tempo  ha  vita.  This  was  the  secret  of  Fred- 
erick's patience.  He  had,  in  fact,  kept  his  imperti- 
nence, his  rather  affected  way  of  jesting,  his  smile, 
French  fashion,  but  with  a  little  stiffer  lip.  Now  those 
were  terribly  serious  things,  that  they  told  him,  the 
night  he  was  awakened  by  the  colonel  and  captain. 
<  <  Lord  Jesus,"  cried  he,  "  rather  take  my  life!"  For 
two  hours,  he  groaned,   cried,   twisted  his  hands.     He 


THE    ATTEMPT    AT    ESCAPE.  287 

sent  to  ask  for  Katte's  pardon.  He  begged  for  a  delay 
in  the  execution;  an  estafette  could  be  quickly  sent  to 
Wusterhausen,  to  take  there,  in  exchange  for  Katte's 
pardon,  his  renunciation  of  the  crown,  his  consent  to 
perpetual  imprisonment  for  himself,  and  even  the  offer 
of  his  own  life,  if  the  king  must  have  it.  But  the 
faces  of  those  surrounding  him  said,  that  he  prayed  and 
cried  in  vain. 

In  the  meanwhile  Katte  had  received  communion. 
To  Schack,  who  had  returned  to  him,  he  had  told  his 
last  wishes;  he  left  his  clothing  to  the  orderly  of  the 
major,  who  had  assisted  him,  during  the  last  night,  had 
made  his  coffee  and  was  ready  to  serve  him  on  the  scaf- 
fold ;  his  bible,  to  a  corporal  who  had  earnestly  sung 
the  hymn  with  him:  "Far  from  my  thoughts,  vain 
world,  begone,  etc."  At  seven  o'clock  the  escort  of 
body  guards  were  ready.  "Is  it  the  hour?"  said  the 
prisoner.      "Yes." 

The  door  opened.  Katte  placed  himself  in  the  midst 
of  the  troopers,  between  the  two  pastors  who  were 
praying.  He  walked  in  an  easy  manner,  with  his  hat 
under  his  arm,  and  was  very  calm.  Outside  the  gate  of 
the  fortress,  which  faced  the  town,  they  turned  around 
the  building  in  order  to  go  into  a  long  court,  which  was 
between  the  main  lodgings  and  the  rampart  washed  by 
the  Oder.  Frederick  was  confined  in  one  of  the  rooms 
overlooking  the  water.  By  order  of  the  king  the  two 
officers  conducted  him  to  the  window.  As  soon  as  he 
perceived  Katte,  who  raised  his  eyes,  he  kissed  his  hand 
to  him:  "My  dear  Katte,"  cried  he  (in  French),  "I 
humbly  ask  your  pardon."     Katte  bowed  low  and  re- 


288  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

plied  (in  the  same  language),  "that  there  was  no  reason 
why  the  prince  should  do  so."216  When  he  arrived  at  the 
circle  formed  by  the  garrison,  he  heard  his  sentence 
read  without  emotion.  He  called  near  him  the  officers 
of  the  body  guard,  and  bade  them,  as  well  as  the  whole 
assembly,  farewrell.  He  devoutly  received  the  benedic- 
tion of  the  pastors,  took  off  his  perruque  which  he 
handed  to  Schack's  orderly,  and  put  on  his  head  a  white 
cap;  he  began  to  take  off  his  coat  and  open  his  shirt 
wide  at  the  neck,  tranquilly  doing  this  like  a  man  who 
bravely  "prepares  himself  for  a  serious  event."  Then 
he  knelt  upon  the  heap  of  sand  which  had  been  placed 
there.  "Lord  Jesus,"  he  cried.  The  orderly  wished 
to  put  the  bandage  over  his  eyes;  he  pushed  it  aside 
with  his  hand,  and  began  again:  "Lord  Jesus!" 
The  stroke  of  the  sword  interrupted  his  prayer. 

The  Crown  Prince  fainted  at  the  last  look  of  the 
victim. 

THE    PARDON    OF    THE    PRINCE. 

From  the  place  of  execution  Pastor  Muller  went  di- 
rectly to  the  prince,  whom  he  believed  to  be  dying.  Mul- 
ler tried  to  speak  with  him,  but  finding  him  so  weak 
and  terror-stricken,  he  left  him.  Frederick  went  back 
again  to  his  window;  his  glance  wras  continually  directed 
towards  the  heap  of  sand,  where  the  body  of  Katte  had 
been  left  with  a  black  cloth  thrown  over  it.  It  was  not 
until  two  o'clock  that  two  burghers  brought  a  hearse,  in 
which  they  placed  the  remains,  and  took  it  to  the 
Officer's  Cemetery.  The  prince  watched  them  do  it. 
Muller  then  returned  to  the  prince,  and  their  conversa- 


THE  ATTEMrT  AT  ESCAPE.  289 

tion  lasted  until  five  o'clock.  At  seven  he  was  recalled 
by  Frederick.217 

The  king  had  prescribed  his  task  to  M tiller  in  the  letter 
he  had  received  on  the  3d  of  November:  UI  do  not 
know  you,  but  I  have  heard  very  good  things  of  you, 
and  that  you  are  a  pious  and  an  upright  pastor  and 
servant  of  God.  As  you  go  to  Ctistrin  on  the  occasion 
of  the  execution  of  Lieutenant  Katte,  I  command  you  to 
go,  directly  after  the  execution,  to  the  chamber  of  the 
Crown  Prince,  to  reason  with  him,  and  represent  to  him 
that  those  who  abandon  God,  God  abandons  ;  and  if  God 
abandons  and  withdraws  His  benediction  from  man,  he 
no  longer  does  good  but  evil. 

"Let  him  judge  himself  conscientiously  ;  ask  pardon  of 
God  with  all  his  heart,  for  the  grave  sin  that  he  has 
committed,  and  for  having  led  some  men  astray,  one  of 
whom  had  to  pay  for  it  by  forfeiting  his  life.  If  you 
find  the  prince  amenable,  you  must  have  him  fall  on  his 
knees  with  you,  and  also  the  officers  who  are  with  him, 
and  ask  pardon  of  God  with  contrite  heart.  But  you 
must  act  in  a  good  and  prudent  manner,  for  his  head  is 
full  of  stratagems,  and  you  must  have  a  care,  so  that  all 
this  will  be  with  true  repentance  and  a  penitent  heart. 
You  must  also  represent  to  him,  in  the  right  way,  into 
what  an  error  he  has  plunged,  in  believing  that  such  a 
one  is  predestined  in  this  fashion,  another  in  that,  so 
that  those  who  are  predestined  to  evil  can  only  do  evil, 
while  those  who  are  predestined  to  good  can  only  do 
good,  and  that  nothing  can  be  changed. 

"As  I  hope  that  his  present  circumstances,  and  the 
execution,  all  fresh  in  his  mind,   will  have  touched  and 


290  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

softened  his  heart,  I  make  it  an  affair  of  conscience  with 
you  to  do  all  that  is  humanly  possible,  to  represent  well 
to  the  Crown  Prince  all  the  passages  of  Holy  Scripture, 
upon  Pardon,  to  convince  and  show  him  clearly  your 
meaning,  and  as  he  is  ingenious,  answer  each  one  of  his 
objections  plainly,  but  pertinently  and  fully.  You 
must  lead  him  to  this  discourse  in  the  right  way,  with- 
out his  perceiving  it.  If  you  find  that  the  Crown  Prince 
is  content  with  your  conversation,  and  that  he  welcomes 
your  good  doctrines,  that  they  go  to  his  heart,  you  must 
remain  at  Ciistrin  and  go  to  the  prince  every  day  and 
penetrate  his  conscience  with  your  words  in  such  a  way 
that  he  will  see  his  faults  and  be  converted  at  heart  to 
God.  If  you  do  not  find  him  accessible  you  must  leave, 
and  write  me ;  and,  if  I  go  to  Berlin  you  must  go  there 
to  speak  with  me.  But  if  you  find  him  repentant  you 
must  write  me  and  remain  with  the  prince." 

We  must  compare  this  letter  with  the  order  given 
on  the  same  day  to  General  Lepell  on  the  subject  of 
the  execution.  When  he  had  written  these  two  docu- 
ments the  king  had  made  up  his  mind.  Not  only  had 
he  decided  to  let  his  son  live,  but  he  thought  no 
longer  about  disinheriting  him.  He  gave  back  to  him 
the  title  of  Crown  Prince  that  he  had  evaded  giving 
him  before.  After  so  much  hesitation  he  had  chosen 
the  punishment  that  he  was  going  to  inflict  on  the 
rebel :  he  condemned  Frederick  to  the  agitation  of 
viewing  a  terrible  spectacle.  He  composed  the  whole 
drama  himself  and  foresaw  everything  to  the  minutest 
detail. 

In  the  order  to  the  General,  he  regulated  the  execution, 


THE  ATTEMPT  AT  ESCAPE.  291 

the  place  where  it  was  to  be  consummated,  the  position 
of  the  body  guard,  who  were  to  remain  on  foot  (so  as 
not  to  hide  the  condemned,  who  must  be  seen  from  the 
windows) ;  he  described  the  way  that  Katte  should  be 
introduced  into  the  circle  by  the  escort,  the  moment  that 
his  sentence  was  to  be  read  ;  he  named  the  magistrate 
who  was  to  do  the  reading.  "As  soon  as  the  death 
sentence  is  read,  tbe  pastor  must  say  a  prayer,  and  the 
executioner  cut  off  the  head."  He  said  how  the  body 
should  be  exposed,  and  up  to  what  hour,  and  to  what 
cemetery  the  corpse  should  be  taken  by  some  burghers 
of  a  respectable  standing,  hilbsche  BiXrger"  He  des- 
ignated the  officers  who  were  to  go  to  the  prince  before 
the  execution,  < 'to  command  him  in  my  name  to  look  at 
it  with  them,"  and  who,  immediately  after,  must  go  to 
seek  the  pastor  of  the  body  guard:  "And  he  must  speak, 
reason  and  pray  with  the  prince."  In  the  letters  to  the 
pastor,  the  king  gives  him  the  subject  for  his  words  and 
arguments,  and  even  the  tone  of  his  prayers. 

Upon  the  terror  of  the  execution  still  "right  fresh," 
he  wishes  him  to  pour  the  word  of  God  and  an  exhorta- 
tion to  repentance.  If  his  son  is  capable  of  being 
touched,  he  undoubtedly  will  be  so  at  that  moment.  To 
the  reasons  which  had  decided  the  king  to  condemn  the 
unfortunate  Katte,  must  be  added  the  hope  of  moving 
Frederick  to  the  very  depths  of  his  soul.  The  king  rep- 
resented to  himself  the  theatrical  effect  of  the  pastor 
entering  the  cell  before  the  executioner  had  hardly  time 
to  wipe  his  sword.218 

Muller  obeyed  to  the  letter,  the  king's  orders.  On 
this  day  of  the  first  interview,  he  gave  Frederick  Katte's 


292  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

last  wishes,  so  as  to  keep  his  emotion  alive,  to  "  break" 
and  "  wring"  his  heart.  The  prince  in  the  midst  of 
tears  and  sobs,  acknowledged  that  all  his  unhappy 
friend  had  written  was  true.  He  protested  with  vehe- 
mence that,  as  for  himself,  from  the  beginning,  he  had 
truly  repented  at  heart.  He  added,  alluding  to  his 
repeated  pleas  for  pardon  and  mercy,  that  the  king  could 
not  have  known  it,  since  he  had  this  execution  take 
place  under  the  eyes  of  his  son,  who  had  repented  of  his 
sins  and  was  and  still  continued  to  be  submissive  to  his 
whole  will. 

The  prisoner  had  a  bad  night.  He  had  not  eaten 
throughout  the  day  and  was  very  weak.  The  three  per- 
sons who  remained  near  his  bedside,  heard  his  delirium. 
On  awakening  he  said:  "The  king  imagines  he  has 
taken  Katte  away  from  me,  but  he  is  always  before  my 
eyes."  He  received  the  physician  to  whom  he  declared 
that  he  was  very  well ;  he  asked  him,  however,  to  pre- 
scribe a  powder  which  he  had  been  in  the  habit  of  tak- 
ing; he  began  then  to  reconcile  himself  with  life.  To 
the  pastor  he  showed  a  more  earnest  repentance  than  the 
evening  before.  His  sin,  said  he,  appeared  to  him  still 
greater.  He  regretted  his  effrontery  during  the  exami- 
nation before  the  court-martial.  If,  at  the  beginning, 
someone  had  only  talked  sensibly  with  him,  without 
hard  threats,  his  thoughts  would  not  have  gone  to  the 
extreme  that  he  regretted  now.  He  thanked  God  and 
his  father  for  the  humility  inflicted  upon  him,  and  sub- 
mitted himself  to  the  paternal  and  royal  will  of  His 
Majesty. 

The  prince  and  pastor  then  took  up  again  the  conver- 


THE    ATTEMPT    AT    ESCAPE.  293 

sation  on  things  divine.  Frederick,  whom  Muller 
had,  as  early  as  the  evening  before,  reproached  with 
his  heresy  as  a  Particularism  began  again  himself  with 
the  discourse  upon  grace  and  fatality.  He  exposed  his 
doctrine,  and  provoked  his  interlocutor  to  contradict 
him.  Muller  quoted  these  words  from  St.  Peter:  "Not 
willing  that  any  should  perish  but  that  all  should  come 
to  repentance."  The  prince  was  surprised  :  "  He  had 
never  seen,"  said  he,  "this  passage  of  Scripture,  which 
appeared  to  prove  in  fact  that  the  intention  of  God  is  to 
save  even  the  most  wicked  of  men."  Muller  invoked, 
besides,  the  testimonies  of  St.  Paul,  no  less  conclusive. 
The  prince  tried  to  defend  himself  by  comparisons : 
"  Does  not  the  arrangement  of  the  wheels  of  a  watch  de- 
termine the  movement  of  these  wheels?  "  "  Certainly," 
answered  the  pastor,  "but  these  wheels  have  no  will  to 
resist."  "  Is  not  the  power  of  fire  over  wood  necessarily 
of  one  kind,  and  has  it  not  a  unique  effect?  "  "Yes,  but, 
if  part  of  the  wood  is  dipped  in  water,  the  power  of  the 
fire  has  no  longer  a  unique  effect."  Muller  took  immed- 
iately the  offensive:  "Two  men  have  fallen  into  the 
castle  moat;  to  each  one  is  thrown  a  rope.  They  are 
told  that  if  they  but  catch  hold  of  it,  they  will  be  saved. 
One  of  them  does  not  care  to  take  hold  of  the  rope;  if 
he  is  not  saved,  it  is  through  his  own  fault." 

While  the  pastor  and  he  discussed  in  puerile  terms 
the  primordial  and  obscure  question  of  our  free- 
dom, the  prince  managed  his  retreat.  He  knew  that  the 
king  would  never  pardon  his  persistence  in  heresy.  He 
was  not  yet  fully  assured  about  his  fate.  From  time  to 
time,  he  wxnt  to  the  window,  and  looked  at  the  heap  of 


294:  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

sand,  that  was  still  there,  and  he  begged  the  Governor 
to  have  it  removed.  At  last,  he  confessed  his  error. 
"There  is  no  fatality,"  said  he,  "and  I,  alone,  am  the 
cause  of  Katte's  death  and  my  own  unhappiness."  Mul- 
ler  assured  him  that  he  w^as  on  the  right  road,  in  ac- 
knowledging and  feeling  the  greatness  of  his  fault;  he 
had  but  to  allow  himself  now  to  be  conducted,  through 
God's  aid,  to  true  repentance.  Then  the  prince  replied  : 
"  With  all  my  heart,  if  there  is  yet  grace  for  me,  and  if 
I  have  account  to  render  to  none  but  God."  The  pastor 
continued  to  speak  only  of  God0  "He  has  made  you 
feel  His  anger,  to  force  you  to  cry  for  His  mercy! "  But 
Frederick  knew  very  well,  that  with  God  he  could  ar- 
range matters  always:  "  I  believe  that,"  he  said,  "but 
I  fear  I  will  never,  in  my  life,  obtain  the  king's  mercy." 
It  is  from  the  king  that  he  wished  to  obtain  pardon 
for  his  sins.  Every  time  that  Miiller  spoke  of  God's 
pardon,  Frederick  responded  with  the  king's  pardon. 
He  feared  that  the  pastor  was  hiding  from  him  a  fearful 
secret;  he  hesitated  to  put  the  exact  question  that  arose 
to  his  lips.  He  turned  his  phrases  about,  and  sought  to 
make  the  pastor  understand  his  anxiety.  At  last,  as 
Miiller  was  obstinately  continuing  his  theological  dis- 
courses, he  risked  saying  :  "  Must  I  not  conclude  from 
your  visit,  that  you  wish  to  prepare  me  for  death  also?  " 
Miiller  finally  understood  him;  he  denied  it,  and  took 
much  trouble  to  get  this  idea  out  of  the  prince's  mind  : 
"It  all  depends  upon  Your  Highness  as  to  whether  you 
wish  to  remain  .here  or  not,  and  for  how  long."  Fred- 
erick, reassured  a  little,  began  to  pray.  When  he  be- 
came calmer,  he  asked  the  pastor  to  remain  still  nearer, 


THE  ATTEMPT  AT  ESCAPE.  295 

to  sleep  at  the  Castle,  if  possible,  so  that  he  could  see 
him  as  often  as  he  liked,  and  converse  with  him 
for  his  edification.  Mtiller  obtained  permission  to  stay 
at  the  fortress,  in  an  apartment  above  that  of  the  prince, 
who  had  only  to  knock  on  the  floor  to  have  him  come 
down. 

The  worthy  man  believed  in  the  sincerity  of  Fred- 
erick's repentance  and  conversion.  He  affirmed,  before 
God,  to  the  king,  that  he  had  not  been  able  to  discover 
in  the  prince  the  slightest  trace  of  falsehood.  At  the 
same  time  he  implored  the  king  "  to  let  a  little  of  his 
royal  mercy  shine  on  the  prince,"  for  he  was  afraid  His 
Highness,  *  <  through  fear  and  an  expectation  of  things 
that  might  happen,  and  through  the  effect  of  persistent 
and  growing  sadness,  would  fall  into  a  dangerous 
malady  of  the  mind."  The  fourth  day  he  received  and 
read  with   joy  the  response. 

The  king  commanded  him  to  stay  on  at  Custrin,  and 
to  adjure  the  prince  to  search  himself  well,  and  to  con- 
fess all  the  sins  he  had  committed  against  God,  the  king, 
himself  and  his  honor,  for,  "to  borrow  money  when 
one  cannot  pay  it,  to  wish  to  desert,  this  does  not  come 
from  an  honest  man,  but  from  hell — the  children  of  the 
devil — and  not  from  the  children  of  God." 

"You  have  assured  me,  on  your  conscience,  and  be- 
fore your  Maker,"  added  he,  "that  the  prince,  at  Cus- 
trin, has  been  converted  to  God;  that  many  times  he  has 
asked  pardon  of  his  king,  seignior,  and  father,  for  all 
he  has  done,  and  that  he  has  regretted  bitterly  not 
having  submitted  to  the  good  wishes  and  will  of  his 
father.     If  now  you  find  the  prince  disposed  to  promise 


296  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

this  firmly  before  God  ;  if  it  is  true  that  his  heart  has 
suffered  for  his  sins;  if  it  is  his  real  intention  to  do 
better  in  the  way  that  I  direct,  you  can  signify  to  him 
in  my  name  that,  verily,  I  cannot  give  him  entire  pardon, 
but  that,  through  a  mercy  that  he  does  not  deserve,  I 
will  release  him  from  the  fortress  and  again  appoint 
some  people  to  watch  over  his  conduct. 

"•The  town  will  be  his  prison.  He  cannot  leave  it. 
I  will  give  him  occupation  from  morning  until  evening 
in  the  chamber  of  war  and  domains  and  the  govern- 
ment. He  will  work  in  economics,  receive  the  ac- 
counts, read  the  acts,  and  take  notes.  But,  before  this 
happens,  I  will  make  him  take  an  oath  to  act  in  all 
obedience,  conformably  to  my  will,  and  to  do  every- 
ting  befitting  and  belonging  to  a  faithful  servitor,  sub- 
ject, and  son.  But  if  he  revolts  or  flies  into  a  passion 
again,  he  will  lose  the  succession  to  the  crown  and  to 
the  electorate,  and  even,  according  to  circumstances, 
his    life.  I    notify   you    to    represent   to   the 

prince,  in  my  name,  that  I  know  him  well.  Does  he 
think  that  I  do  not  know  him?  He  ought  to  be  con- 
vinced that  I  know  his  wicked  heart  well. 

"If  this  heart  is  not  bent  or  changed,  if  it  still  re- 
mains the  same,  if  he  has  the  intention  of  abjuring  this 
oath,  he  will  content  himself  with  muttering  it,  and  he 
will  not  express  it  in  a  loud  voice.  Tell  him  in  my  name 
that  I  advise  him,  as  a  faithful  friend,  to  swear  in  a  loud 
and  clear  manner,  and  to  feel  himself  obliged  to  hold  to 
his  oath,  word  for  word.  Here,  we  mean  nothing  to  be 
in  mental  reserve.  We  understand  nothing  except  what 
is  written.     If  he  wishes  to  violate  or  break  this  oath, 


THE  ATTEMPT  AT  ESCAPE.  297 

he  will  have  no  excuse.  Let  him  ponder  it  well.  Let 
him  constrain  and  change  his  bad  heart  through  Divine 
assistance,  for  it  is  a  question  of  grave  importance. 

"  May  the  Most  High  God  give  him  His  benediction! 
And,  as  often  through  some  marvelous  means,  some 
miraculous  channels,  through  bitter  pathways,  He  leads 
men  to  Christ's  kingdom,  may  He  bring  back  to  His 
communion  this  wayward  son!  May  He  prostrate  this 
impious  heart!  May  He  soften  and  change  it,  and  tear 
him  from  Satan's  clutches!  May  God,  the  all-powerful 
Father,  grant  this,  through  the  mediation  of  the  suffer- 
ings and  death  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  .   .   .      Amen!  " 

This  time  it  was  pardon,  enveloped  in  a  strong  sermon. 
As  soon  as  he  received  the  letter,  Muller  went  to  the 
prince's  chamber.  He  found  him  reading  the  Bible  and 
plunged  in  deep  meditation.  Frederick  undoubtedly  did 
not  see  by  Mtiller's  expression,  that  he  had  anything 
new  to  communicate;  othewise,  he  would  not  have  begun 
the  discourse  with  the  pastor  upon  the  claims  of  our 
Saviour  and  the  debt  which  His  death  caused  us  to  con- 
tract with  Him.  Muller  let  him  say  it ;  he  even  took 
occasion  in  this  effusion  of  piety,  to  press  him  to  confirm 
his  promises  of  amendment  by  an  oath  that  he  would 
withdraw  all  his  suspicions  and  ill-will  from  the  king. 
The  prince  did  not  see  where  he  was  leading  him,  nor 
how  the  king  could  give  him  pardon  for  an  oath.  The 
pastor  finally  began  to  explain,  and  spoke,  this  time,  in 
the  king's  name,  as  he  had  received  the  order:  "Is  it 
possible,"  cried  the  prince,  whose  eyes  filled  with  tears. 
Muller  drew  the  letter  from  his  pocket  and  gave  it  to  the 
prince.     Frederick  read  it,  and  saw  that  he  was  saved. 


298  FREDERICK   THE    GREAT. 

He  began  by  expressing  his  gratitude  to  his  father; 
then  he  said  that  he  knew  very  well  what  was  meant  by 
an  oath,  that  there  must  be  no  mental  reserve,  on  the 
contrary,  it  must  be  taken  in  the  sense  and  spirit  of  the 
one  who  had  ordered  it.  Of  course,  he  would  take  it  in 
a  loud  and  intelligible  voice.  To  prove  that  he  accepted 
the  proposition  seriously,  and  wished  earnestly  to  pledge 
himself,  he  expressed  the  hope  that  the  king  would  order 
nothing  in  the  formula  not  "  paternal  and  acceptable"  to 
himself;  he  begged  His  Majesty  to  communicate  to  him, 
in  advance,  the  said  formula,  "so  that  he  would  pre- 
cipitate nothing,  and  could  prepare  himself  conscientious- 
ly, with  sufficient  reflection,  to  pronounce  well  and  observe 
closely  all  the  points  of  the  oath."  The  good  Muller 
transmitted  this  petition  to  the  king,  commending  it  to 
him. 

Nothing  now  remained  but  to  regulate  the  last  formal- 
ities of  setting  the  Crown  Prince  at  liberty.  The  king 
concerted  with  Grumbkow  and  Seckendorff.  Secken- 
dorff assumed  the  hurried  air  of  a  rescuer.  To  complete 
the  success  of  his  intrigue,  he  wished  to  give  out  the  im- 
pression that  the  prince  owed  his  salvation  entirely  to 
the  intercession  of  the  Emperor.  It  came  not  from  that 
source  at  all.  Frederick  William  had  certainly  taken 
this  stand  of  himself.  The  representations  coming  from 
foreign  countries  would  not  have  sufficed  to  determine 
him.  When  he  learned  from  his  minister  at  London  the 
severe  censure  in  England  of  his  execution  of  Katte,  he 
replied:  "If  there  had  been  a  hundred  instead  of  one 
Katte  like  that,  I  would  have  cut  the  heads  off  them  all. 
„  .   ,  As  long  as  God  allows  me  to  live,  I  will  sustain 


THE    ATTEMPT    AT    ESCAPE.  299 

myself  as  a  despotic  Seignior,  als  Ilerr  despotique  sou- 
teniren  wiirde.  .  .  .  The  English  ought  to  know  that  I 
will  never  tolerate  a  co-regent  by  my  side."  The  Em- 
peror even  would  have  had  a  hard  time  of  it,  if  he  had 
attempted  to  play  this  role.  However,  he  did  not  pre- 
tend to  do  it,  and  his  intervention  was  discreet.  There 
had  been  sent  by  Seckendorff  to  his  Court,  as  early  as  the 
2d  of  December,  the  model  of  a  letter  to  be  written  in 
behalf  of  the  Emperor  in  favor  of  the  prince,  but  he  did 
not  wish  to  precipitate  things.  He  had  had  the  satis- 
faction of  being  supplicated  by  his  vanquished  enemy 
the  queen,  who  said  to  him,  "That  the  Emperor  alone 
could  save  her  son  ; "  he  had  responded  that  it  "was  im- 
possible to  meddle  in  the  affairs  of  the  royal  house 
while  the  king  did  not  authorize  it,'  'His  Majesty  having 
no  need  of  foreign  aid  "to  procure  his  domestic  peace." 
When  he  received  the  Imperial  letter,  he  wrote  to 
Vienna  that  he  would  keep  it  until  the  moment  he  was 
sure  that  the  king  wished  to  proclaim  pardon.  He 
awaited,  in  fact,  the  permission  of  the  king  to  remit  to 
him  the  autograph  missive  of  his  sovereign.  It  is  true 
that  the  king  declared  soon  afterward  that  his  son  owed 
his  pardon  to  the  Emperor.  "For  the  pardon  of  the 
Crown  Prince,"  wrote  he  to  his  minister  at  Vienna,  "we 
have,  above  all,  considered  the  intercession  in  his  favor 
of  His  Imperial  Roman  Majesty."  But  he  wrote  also  to 
his  minister  at  St.  Petersburg  :  "For  the  pardon  of  the 
Crown  Prince  we  have  considered,  above  all,  the  inter- 
cession in  his  favor  of  His  Imperial  Russian  Majesty." 
Frederick  the  Great  saved  by  the  father  of  Maria  The- 
resa, would  be  a  history  worthy  to  relegate  to  legendary 


300  FREDERICK   THE    GREAT. 

lore  ;  but  it  suited  the  King  of  Prussia,  who  was  very 
much  irritated  then  against  France  and  England,  to  recall 
his  imperialistic  fervor,  to  make  his  son  believe  that  he 
owed  to  Austria  his  liberty  and  the  preservation  of  his 
rights  to  the  Crown.219 

He  then  requested  Seckendorff  to  regulate  himself,  the 
conditions  of  the  pardon  of  the  prince  and  his  release. 
It  was  Seckendorff  who  proposed  to  the  king  to  exact  the 
solemn  oath  from  the  prince,  and  put  him  in  semi-liberty 
in  the  town  of  Custrin,  obliging  him  to  work  in  the 
chamber  of  domains  or  administration. m  He  had  asked 
besides  to  be  sent  to  Custrin  with  the  commissioners 
designated  to  receive  the  oath.  He  thought  that  nothing 
would  serve  better  to  make  the  prince  know  "that  the 
Emperor,  in  true  friendship  for  His  Royal  Majesty,  had 
interceded  for  him:"  he  wished  to  read  him  the  imperial 
letter,  and  make  him  understand  that,  through  regard 
for  His  Imperial  Majesty,  the  king  "preferred  pardon 
to  justice."  But  Frederick  William  would  not  permit  a 
stranger  to  say  the  last  word  in  so  important  an  affair. 
It  was  Grumbkow  whom  he  sent,  with  five  other  gene- 
rals, to  Custrin,  where  they  arrived  on  the  15th  of 
November. 

The  day  following,  Grumbkow  had  a  long  conversa- 
tion with  the  prince.  What  passed,  we  do  not  know. 
Grumbkow  was  the  man  to  do  just  the  necessary  thing; 
to  laugh  or  cry  with  the  prince,  to  console  or  advise  him, 
to  make  him  wrong  on  certain  points  and  right  on  others. 
He  did  not  fail  to  explain  his  own  conduct,  how 
and  why  he  had  done  what  he  did,  how  much  it  had  cost 
him  to  thwart  the  projects  of  His  Highness.   He  certainly 


THE  ATTEMPT  AT  ESCAPE.  301 

promised  him  his  future  aid  and  devotion.  The  prince 
was  a  man  to  understand  everything,  even  the  most 
subtle  suggestions.  They  had  need  of  each  other,  and 
their  consciences  were  tractable  to  the  movements  of 
their  interests  ;  they  came  to  an  understanding.  To  show 
his  gratitude  to  this  new  ally,  the  prince  made  him  a 
present,  with  tears  and  sobs,  of  the  last  will  or  testament 
of  Katte,  which  will,  it  seems  to  me,  he  ought  to  have 
kept  until  the  day  of  his  death. 

The  17th  of  November,  the  prince  took,  unquestion- 
ably in  a  loud  and  intelligible  voice,  the  oath  "to  obey 
strictly  the  orders  of  the  king,  to  do  in  all  things  that 
which  devolved  upon  and  befitted  a  faithful  servitor, 
subject  and  son."  He  assented,  in  advance,  should  he 
fall  again  into  his  old  errors,  to  the  loss  of  his  hereditary 
rights.  He  was  then  given  his  liberty,  with  the  town 
for  his  prison.  The  Governor  General  returned  his 
sword,  but  without  the  sword-hanger  or  sabretash  of  an 
officer  ;  for  the  king's  pardon  did  not  go  so  far  as  to  re- 
instate his  son  in  the  army.  The  post-guards  could  not 
come  out  and  present  arms  as  he  passed ;  the  military 
were  forbidden  to  salute  him.  Frederick,  sensitive  to 
these  marks  of  indignity,  addressed  to  his  father  imme- 
diately a  petition  to  give  him  back  his  soldier's  garb. 
The  king  answered  that  a  deserter  lost  the  right  to  wear 
uniform,  and  added:  "It  is  not  necessary  that  all 
men  have  the  same  calling  ;  some  should  work  as  sol- 
diers ;  and  others  must  apply  themselves  to  learning  and 
such  like  things." 

Then  he  had  him  listen  to  these  serious  and  true  royal 
words.      "  It  is  necessary  now,"  said  he,  "that  the  prince 


302  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

learn,  by  taking  part  in  affairs,  that  no  State  can  exist 
without  economy  and  a  good  constitution.  The  welfare 
of  a  country  exacts  that  the  prince  himself  should  be  a 
good  economist  and  administrator;  otherwise  the  country 
remains  at  the  disposition  of  favorites  and  prime  min- 
isters, who  profit  by  it  and  put  everything  to  confusion. 
.  .  .  The  Crown  Prince  ought  to  see,  by  examples  that 
are  not  wanting,  that  most  of  the  princes  pay  no  atten- 
tion to  the  economy  of  the  household,  and  that,  while 
they  have  the  finest  countries  in  the  world,  they  do  not 
know  how  to  make  use  of  them,  but,  on  the  contrary, 
run  into  debt  and  ruin  themselves."221 

Thus  ended  the  prison  life  of  the  Crown  Prince  of 
Prussia.  In  the  strife  between  the  father  and  the  son 
both  were  greatly  at  fault ;  the  father,  for  refusing  his 
son  the  right  to  live  according  to  his  nature,  and  smoth- 
ering in  this  young  soul,  by  his  odious  brutality,  all  dis- 
position to  filial  piety  ;  the  son,  in  deceiving  his  father, 
in  intriguing  against  him,  in  not  loving  him,  in  provok- 
ing him  to  anger  by  the  whole  course  of  his  life.  Both 
suffered  :  the  father  was  tortured  by  uneasiness,  uncer- 
tainty, indecision  and  anger  ;  the  son,  by  the  sight  of 
Katte's  blood,  and  by  the  fear  of  dying  ;  but  neither  one 
nor  the  other  had  the  right  to  be  pitied.  Their  suffer- 
ings are  not  the  kind  that  move  the  heart.  They  both 
kept,  each  in  his  own  way,  a  superhuman  coolness,  the 
father  in  arranging  the  drama,  the  son  in  playing  the 
role  as  he  did.  Of  course,  the  young  man  cried,  and 
cried  and  twisted  his  hands,  and  asked  the  Lord  Jesus  to 
let  him  die,  but  the  following  day  he  ordered  a  powder 
from  his  physician  ;  he  discussed  with  perfect  freedom, 


THE  ATTEMPT  AT  ESCAPE.  303 

as  if  he  took  a  real  interest  in  it,  the  question  of  know- 
ing if  Christ  died  for  all  men  or  only  for  the  elect. 
Into  his  theology  and  metaphysics,  he  adroitly  glided 
questions  as  to  his  own  fate,  interrogating  the 
pastor,  and  insinuating  his  repentance,  in  words  the 
most  liable  to  strike  the  king  favorably,  knowing  well 
that  they  would  be  repeated.  He  did  not  hesitate  to 
sign  the  compact  of  reconciliation  that  Grumbkow 
offered  him,  and  as  token  of  his  friendship  he  gave  to  this 
Grumbkow  (one  of  the  authors  of  the  catastrophe),  the 
last  lines  written  by  the  victim.  We  soon  hear  that  His 
Royal  Highness  is  "as  merry  as  a  lark."  Later  Frederick 
will  accuse  Katte  of  having  been  maladroit.  This  young 
man  was  ready  for  the  hazards  and  perils  of  the  life  of  a 
prince ;  he  was  ready  for  great  state  affairs. 

In  a  letter,  wherein  he  gave  an  account  to  Prince  An- 
halt  of  the  manner  in  which  he  had  "regulated  the  bad 
affair  of  Ciistrin,"  Frederick  William  said,  speaking  of 
his  son:  "If  he  becomes  an  honest  man,  it  will  be  a 
happy  thing  for  him,  but  I  doubt  it  strongly."222 


CHAPTER   V. 

THE    SECOND    EDUCATION     OF     THE     CROWN     PRINCE. THE 

FIRST    SIX    MONTHS    IN    THE  CHAMBER  OF  ADMINISTRA- 
TION. 

On  the  19th  of  November,  1730,  the  Crown  Prince  of 
Prussia  left  his  prison.  The  next  day,  he  was  intro- 
duced into  the  Chamber  of  War  and  Administration  at 
Ciistrin.  His  function  and  work  had  been  regulated  by 
the  king  in  an  order  addressed  to  Munchow,  the  presi- 
dent, and  to  Hille,  director  of  the  chamber.  He  had 
the  position  of  auditor,  and  had  to  sit  at  a  small  table 
1 'lower  down,"  and  sign  the  papers  not  on  the  same  line 
with  the  councillors  but  "lower  down."  The  king 
wished  to  keep  him  in  modesty  and  humility,  as  beseem- 
ing a  penitent  not  yet  absolved.  But  this  little  table,  on 
emerging  from  a  prison,  was  equal  to  a  seat  in  paradise. 
The  prince  tasted  the  joy  of  being  sure  of  living,  and 
the  sweetness  of  his  semi-liberty.  He  took  part  in  the 
deliberations  of  the  chamber,  and  entertained  himself 
with  it.  An  officer  of  the  navigation  around  Ciistrin, 
believing  himself  to  be  the  victim  of  an  injustice,  was 
advised  to  address  his  cause  to  the  prince.  This  was  the 
new  auditor's  first  business  affair.  He  began  by  saying, 
that  as  he  was  conducting  himself  very  well,  he  hoped 
that  the  chamber  would  give  him  a  small  department. 
6  'All  those  of  terra  firma  "  being  already  distributed,  he 
laid  claim  to  those  of  the  sea.      "Now  the  Oder,"  said 


THE    SECOND    EDUCATION.  305 

he,  "empties  into  the  Baltic  Sea;  the  cause  of  the  officer 
of  navigation  was  then  in  his  department."  Upon  which 
the  President,  von  Munchow  begun  to  laugh,  and  Direc- 
tor Hille  was  delighted  to  see  that  "His  Highness  was 
as  gay  as  a  lark. " 223 

Frederick  knew  well  that  after  all,  he  was  and  would 
still  remain  the  Heir-apparent  of  Prussia.  It  did  not 
escape  him  that  his  "  superiors  "  knew  it  also.  Presi- 
dent Munchow  was  a  brave  man,  who  had  proved  in  the 
prison  of  Custrin,  his  good  sentiments,  in  a  time  when 
he  risked  his  head  by  so  doing.  Director  Hille,  who 
considered  himself  the  prince's  tutor  in  economy  and 
morals,  took  up  his  role  seriously,  but  Frederick 
admired  in  him  an  extended  learning  and  a  profound 
knowledge  of  French  literature,  and  he  took  kindly  to 
him  for  having  "  sensibility  "  and  intellect.  He  received 
strict  lessons  from  Hille,  but  they  were  well  given,  and 
the  young  man  pardoned  everything  for  esprit;  when 
they  made  him  laugh  at  his  own  expense,  he  was  dis- 
armed, because  he  had  laughed.  After  all,  with  this 
president,  and  this  director,  existence  was  bearable  in 
the  chamber  of  administration.  At  his  dwelling, 
Frederick  lived  with  his  Marshal  of  the  Court,  Von 
Wolden,  and  two  young  nobles  attached  to  the  cham- 
ber, Von  Natzmer  and  Von  Rohwedell.  The  Marshal 
had  the  best  intentions  in  the  world.  By  order  of  the 
king,  he  addressed  to  him  frequent  reports  but  they  were 
written  in  a  way  to  mollify,  more  and  more,  the  father's 
frame  of  mind  in  regard  to  his  son.  He  hoped  that  the 
prince,  "my  subordinate,"  as  he  said,  would  give  satis- 
faction by  his  good   conduct  and  would  not  make  him 


306  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

tell  falsehoods.224  As  for  the  two  young  nobles  they  could 
not  be  such  terrible  guardians.  More  even  than  Miin- 
chow  and  Hille,  they  thought  of  the  future.  Frederick 
entertained  them  with  his  hopes  and  plans  ;  with  them, 
without  precaution,  he  assumed  his  position  as  Heir-ap- 
parent. 

However,  the  gaiety  of  the  lark  did  not  continue. 
The  secret  of  the  prince's  good  humor  was,  that  he 
hoped  the  regime  in  which  they  had  placed  him  would 
not  last  a  long  time.  A  month  had  hardly  passed  by, 
ere  Hille  communicated  his  fears  to  Grumbkow;  we 
must  keep  up  the  prince's  hope,  "if  only  in  a  very  small 
way;  otherwise,  I  do  not  know  what  will  happen."  But 
the  king  from  afar,  made  him  feel  that  he  was  not  yet 
pardoned;  that  he  still  distrusted  him. 

He  read  in  one  of  Wolden's  reports,  that  his  son  per- 
sisted in  his  doctrines  of  predestination.  Quickly,  he 
expedites  a  courier  to  Ciistrin,  with  a  letter,  which 
makes  poor  Wolden  regret  his  imprudence.  "The 
scoundrel  must  give  up  his  false  predestination.  If  he 
wants  to  go  to  the  devil,  let  him  go!  I  have  nothing 
with  which  to  reproach  myself  !  However,  you 

must  all  three,  never  relax  a  moment  reproaching  him 
with  his  error,  taking  your  arguments  from  the  Holy 
Scripture.  .  .  .  You  finally  will  learn  in  time  to 
know  this  saint  better  and  better.  You  will  see  that 
there  is  nothing  good  in  him,  but  his  tongue.  Oh! 
As  to  the  tongue,  there  is  no  fault  to  find  with  it." 
Then  pouring  out,  as  was  his  custom,  all  his  bad  humor, 
he  taunted  his  son  with  his  appearance  and  manners. 
The  rascal  is  never  shaved;  when  this  knave  walks  it  is  in 


THE    SECOND    EDUCATION.  307 

cadence,  making  a  coupe  or  perhaps  a  step  of  passe-pied, 
or  a  contre-temps.  He  walks  on  the  tips  of  his  toes.  He 
stoops  over  when  he  walks.  .  .  .  He  never  looks  an 
honest  man  in  the  face. " 225  The  succeeding  letters  became 
more  and  more  furious.  The  king  wanted  to  know  who 
had  preached  this  satanic  doctrine  to  his  son.  He  estab- 
lished at  Berlin  a  tribunal  of  inquisition,  before  which 
he  made  all  those  appear  whom  he  suspected.  The 
prince,  summoned  to  deliver  the  names,  sent  a  list  of 
books  wherein  he  had  found  reasons  for  his  faith.  "The 
books  have  neither  feet  nor  wings,"  replied  the  king. 
"Some  one  brought  them.  Who?  Who?"  As  the 
prince  did  not  wish  to  betray  anyone,  the  king,  who  had 
learned  that  he  was  sick,  trusted  he  would  die  without 
daring  to  hope:  "He  is  predestined;  so  be  it.  If  there 
is  anything  good  in  him,  he  will  die  ;  but  there  is  no 
danger  of  his  dying.      Ill  weeds  grow  apace." 

On  the  receipt  of  these  letters,  the  household  of  Cus- 
trin  was  thrown  into  consternation.  "I  am  at  my  wits 
end,"  wrote  Hille:  "Since  submission  up  to  the  small- 
est detail  is  no  use,  I  might  just  as  well  do  the  contrary 
and  perish  with  honor,"  said  the  prince.  However,  he 
thought  better  of  it.  Hille  convinced  him  that  the  thesis 
upon  which  predestination  was  established,  was  in  a  mere 
play  of  words.  After  all,  concluded  Frederick,  "it  is 
not  worth  martyrdom."  He  wrote  then  to  his  father 
that  he  renounced  his  doctrine,  and  was  persuaded  that 
he  had  been  deceived  by  philosophical  and  political  argu- 
ments, happy  besides  to  abjure  it,  since  it  was  displeas- 
ing to  him.226 

To  evade  the  return   of  storms   like   these,   Wolden, 


308  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

Mlinchow  and  Hille,  had  recourse  to  the  protection  of 
Grumbkow,  whose  influence  was  stronger  than  ever. 
The  clever  man  wished  while  serving  the  king,  to 
manage  the  prince.  He  sent  instructions  and  advice. 
Custrin  asked  even  for  the  model  of  the  letter  that  the 
prince  must  write  for  the  New  Year.  "  I  recommend 
our  little  company  to  the  protection  of  Your  Excel- 
lency," said  Wolden  to  him.  Grumbkow  acceded  to  the 
difficult  task,  and  the  "  little  company"  returned  once 
more  to  its  tranquil  life. 

Too  tranquil,  alas!  the  prince  did  not  know  how  to 
occupy  himself.  The  sittings  lasted  only  a  few  hours 
in  the  morning;  after  dinner  for  two  hours  he  had  to 
copy  documents,  but  even  though  he  did  this  regular 
work,  the  days  would  still  be  long.  Wolden  asked  that 
the  prince  might  be  permitted  to  study  some  works  on 
finance  and  administration.  "Why  not  give  him  at 
once,  flute  and  violin,"  replied  the  king?  "No,  he  must 
have  no  books  unless,  they  be  the  Bible,  Psalm  Book  and 
the  <  True  Christianity  '  of  Arnd.  Books  teach  noth- 
ing. What  is  now  necessary,  is  practice.  It  is  the 
reading  of  a  lot  of  useless  books  that  has  led  the 
prince  to  do  evil.  Let  him  study  in  the  registers  of  the 
chambers,  the  old  papers  of  the  time  of  the  Elector 
Frederick  William,  and  the  acts  of  the  Margrave  John 
of  Custrin." 

It  is  probable  that  Frederick  did  not  look  at  these  old 
papers.  What  was  he  to  do  then?  He  talked  with  the 
"three  gentlemen."  The  king  had  permitted  this 
amusement ;  he  had  even  regulated  it.  The  conversa- 
tion should  turn  upon  the  word  of  God,  the  constitution 


THE    SECOND    EDUCATION.  309 

of  the  country,  manufactures,  police,  accounts,  farm- 
rent,  procedure.  If  the  prince  takes  it  into  his  head  to 
speak  of  peace,  war,  or  other  political  questions  these 
gentlemen  must  hush  him  up.  They  certainly  did  not 
obey  this  command.  The  prince  often  talked  politics 
with  Natzmer,  who  was  very  glad  to  give  him  a*  reply, 
for  he  thought  himself  born  for  great  affairs;  but  sub- 
jects were  soon  worn  out,  and  the  four  interlocutors, 
finding  nothing  to  say,  remained  silent. 

It  was  forbidden  to  change  the  prince's  company.  He 
must  never  dine  out,  never.  He  must  always  dine  with 
the  "  three  gentlemen,"  without  extending  an  invitation 
to  anyone  else.  No  music,  no  dancing:  "  He  is  not  at 
Custrin  to  amuse  himself,  um  sick  zu  divertiren."  They 
lived  in  this  way,  these  four  personages  of  our  history, 
in  a  small  plain  house  and  with  strict  economy.  The 
king  forbade  oysters,  salt-water-fish,  capons  of  Ham- 
burg and  other  delicacies.  The  allowance  for  the 
first  month  was  147  thalers  and  8  groschens,  out  of 
which  were  to  be  paid  three  lackeys  (22  thalers),  the 
cook  (7  thalers,  8  groschens),  the  rent  (6  thalers,  8 
groschens),  food  (60  thalers),  light  and  wood  (20  thalers), 
shoes  (20  thalers).  The  remainder  was  to  cover  inci- 
dental expenses.  The  prince  had  to  keep  his  own  ac- 
counts ;  he  did  not  fail  in  this,  for  the  king  examined 
them  closely.  In  the  accounts  of  the  second  month, 
Frederick  made  excuses  for  having  paid  too  much  for 
the  butter:  "there  was  a  distemper,  from  which  came 
the  scarcity  of  butter,  daher  entstandene  Raritet  der 
Enter"  He  refrained  from  complaining  of  the  paternal 
parsimony.     The  least  demand,  and  the  most  simple  and 


310  FREDERICK   THE    GREAT. 

natural  care  of  his  person  became  crimes.  He  wished, 
summer  coming  on,  to  have  some  suitable  clothing.  The 
king  refused  :  "This  is  neither  a  Brandenburg  nor  a 
Prussian  fashion  ;  it  comes  from  the  French."  Behold 
the  state  to  which  this  prince  is  now  reduced  who  was 
< 'well  disposed  toward  magnificence." 

He  was  bored,  the  others  were  bored.  Custrin 
yawned  in  her  confidential  letters.  Hille  gave  notice  of 
the  constant  diminution  of  the  prince's  good  humor.  He 
said:  "His  Highness  is  beginning  to  tire  of  this." 
"  The  rest  of  us  in  the  convent  will  die,  if  this  kind  of 
life  continues  "  added  Wolden,  to  whom  his  physician 
had  just  prescribed  helleboriim-nigrum.221 

They  were  like  a  party  of  ship-wrecked  people,  thrown 
by  the  tempest  on  a  desert  island  and  without  resources; 
they  lived  upon  themselves,  but  no  longer  satisfied  with 
doing  that,  the  eye  was  continually  fixed  upon  the  silent 
horizon.  Frederick  and  three  noblemen  were  enclosed  in 
a  little  town  of  narrow  streets,  its  people  poor  and 
plain,  with  provincial,  pedantic  functionaries,  and  a 
mechanical  military  code.  They  could  see,  from  the 
height  of  the  ramparts,  the  Oder  and  the  Wartha  flow- 
ing by,  and  the  extension  of  the  plain,  but  the  postern 
did  not  allow  them  to  pass.  The  king  forbade 
them  to  go  farther.  He  only  enlarged  his  son's  prison; 
he  kept  him  closed  up,  with  his  youth,  his  impatience, 
his  dreams,  within  those  walls  at  whose  base  streamed 
Katte's  blood. 

However,  those  Custrin  days,  so  long  and  so  empty, 
counted  in  the  life  of  Frederick.  Will  or  nill  he  learned 
about  affairs,  in  the  daily  sittings  of  the   chamber.     He 

/ 


THE    SECOND    EDUCATION.  311 

saw  there,  detail  after  detail,  all  the  economy  of  the  roy- 
alty of  Prussia:  rentals,  contributions,  excise,  mills, 
foundries,  manufactures,  customs,  those  elements  of  the 
financial  power  which  produced  the  military  power. 
Hille  taught  him  finance  and  commerce.  He  had  the  tal- 
ent of  making  himself  interesting,  in  enlarging  upon  the 
subjects  he  treated.  One  day,  after  a  lesson  upon  com- 
merce, he  traced  rapidly  the  commercial  history  of 
Brandenburg.  He  told  how  the  city  of  Frankfort-on-the- 
Oder  had  been  the  centre  of  trade,  in  the  Middle  Ages, 
when  she  received  through  Venice  and  Augsburg  the 
merchandise  of  the  Levant,  and  bonded  it,  so  as  to  dis- 
tribute it,  in  the  Marche,  in  Poland,  Prussia,  Pomerania, 
and  Mecklenburg.  After  the  discovery  of  the  route 
around  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  the  products  of  the  Le- 
vant came  by  way  of  the  North  Sea  and  the  Baltic. 
Frankfort  lost  then  "her  country  back  of  her,"  the 
whole  side  of  the  Baltic,  but  gained  Silesia  and  Bohe- 
mia, which  no  longer  received  anything  from  Italy. 
Unfortunately,  the  commerce  of  Frankfort  has  been  for 
a  long  time  trammeled  by  the  Swedes,  the  masters  of 
Pomerania,  that  is  to  say  of  the  mouths  of  the  Oder. 
At  present,  Pomerania  belongs  to  the  king  of  Prussia, 
but  the  main  branch  of  the  Oder  runs  through  the  domin- 
ions of  Austria,  which  possesses  Silesia,  and  King  Freder- 
ick William  in  lowering  the  customs  duties  on  the  Sile- 
sian  frontier  to  please  the  Emperor,  permits  the  mer- 
chants of  this  country  to  compete  with  his  own  subjects. 
"There  is  no  hope  for  a  good  commerce  in  Brandenburg," 
concluded  Hille,  "until  the  Silesians  are  forced  from  their 
immediate  commercial   intercourse.      How   can   that  be 


312  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

done?  It  is  a  point  that  higher  and  cleverer  heads  than 
ours  must  decide."228 

In  pronouncing  this  conclusion,  Hille  thought  to  him- 
self: a  word  to  the  wise  is  sufficient.  And  the  future 
conqueror  of  Silesia  was  a  good  listener.  It  is  not  pos- 
sible that  Frederick,  in  hearing  this  lesson,  could  fail  to 
comprehend  the  great  law  which  was  involved  in  the 
development  of  the  Prussian  monarchy.  Brandenburg, 
the  heart  of  this  monarchy,  was  a  poor  level  country, 
between  mountain  and  sea,  separated  from  both,  inter- 
sected by  parallel  streams,  which  were  roads  of  in- 
vasion, of  which  they  held  neither  the  starting  point  nor 
the  end.  Open  from  east  to  west,  as  well  as  from  north 
to  south,  swept  by  all  gales  coming  from  Germanic  Po- 
land, it  would  have' perished  like  Poland,  if  it  had  not  baf- 
fled by  the  strength  of  its  laws,  its  own  weakness  and  the 
defects  of  its  own  constitution;  if  it  had  not  been  "planted 
firmly  on  its  feet,"  in  the  justice  hall  of  Brandenburg; 
if  it  had  not  finally  gone  up  and  down  its  rivers,  con- 
quering mountain  and  sea.  "Frederick,"  said  Hille, 
"knows  perfectly  Aristotle's  poetry,  but  he  is  ignorant 
as  to  whether  his  ancestors  gained  Magdeburg  at  cards 
or  some  other  way."  His  new  master  taught  him  the 
use  of  conquests,  and  that  they  were,  for  Prussia,  the 
only  means  of  life. 

I  imagine,  however,  at  this  date,  during  the  first 
months  of  his  sojourn  at  Ciistrin,  he  did  not  take  a  real 
interest  in  economy.  He  was  a  docile  auditor,  because 
he  had  a  wish  to  rise  from  this  "  little  seat,"  to  leave  the 
city,  to  close  his  account  book  of  household  expenses  and 
go  away.     In  order  to  do  this  he  must  flatter  the  paternal 


THE    SECOND    EDUCATION.  313 

mania.  He  gave  himself  the  air  of  being  a  good  econo- 
mist. Wolden  affirmed  that  at  the  end  of  four  months 
the  prince  knew  "  all  that  could  be  learned  of  economy 
by  theory."  He  defied  President  MUnchow  to  make  "  a 
better  Amchlag  than  our  illustrious  auscultatory™  but 
the  marshal  of  the  court  was  as  anxious  as  his  pupil  to 
"leave  the  galleys."  Hille  declared  that  the  prince  had 
composed,  all  alone,  a  statement  sent  to  the  king  "  on 
the  subject  of  the  improvement  of  flax-husbandry,"  but 
Hille  made  the  most  of  his  pupil's  attainments,  and  he 
certainly  aided  Frederick  "  to  do  his  task,"  as  the  school 
boys  say,  if  he  did  not  do  it  entirely.  The  king  was  not 
deceived.  "You  very  much  astonish  me,"  wrote  he; 
"do  you  imagine  that  I  am  going  to  believe  that  the 
prince  is  the  author  of  such  matter!  I  know  well 
enough  what  is  in  him.  Besides,  this  does  not  please  me 
at  all  for  him  to  begin  to  form  projects.  I  have  told  you 
that  I  want  him  instructed  solidly.  I  do  not  wish  to 
hear  of  empty  formulas.  One  has  no  need  of  a  master 
to  manufacture  wind."230 

"What  is  in  him,"  is  that  the  prince  learns  and  com- 
prehends quickly,  but  wishes  to  make  believe  that  his 
apprenticeship  is  finished.  The  Ciistrin  people  seek 
every  pretext  to  give  themselves  air.  When  the  princess 
Wilhelmina  is  at  last  betrothed,  Wolden  asks  that  the 
prince  may  be  invited  to  witness  the  marriage  of  his 
sister.  "  Refused,"  wrote  the  king  on  the  margin  ;  "a 
man  under  arrest  should  be  kept  close."  Besides,  he 
knew  well,  said  he  to  Grumbkow,  that  the  prince  was 
as  happy  as  a  king  to  be  over  there  without  his  father. 
He  wished  him  to  lead  a  quiet,  retired  life.       "  If  I  had 


314  FREDERICK   THE    GREAT. 

done  what  he  has  done,  I  would  be  ashamed  to  live,  and 
I  would  not  allow  myself  to  be  seen  by  any  one.  He 
must  obey  my  will,  get  out  of  his  head  those  French  and 
English  mannerisms,  and  only  think  like  a  Prussian,  be 
faithful  to  his  seignior  and  father,  have  a  German  heart, 
get  out  of  his  mind  that  damnable  idea  of  a  petit-maitre 
French  fashion,  call  on  the  grace  of  God  earnestly,  have 
God  always  before  his  eyes,  and  then  God  will  arrange 
things  for  his  welfare,  both  in  this  world  and  the  next." 
Again  Wolden  laments  "not  seeing  the  end  of  this 
drudgery."  He  hoped  that  the  king  would  have  his  son 
at  the  grand  review  in  the  spring,  but  the  time  arrived 
and  Frederick  was  not  called.  He  redoubled  his  entrea- 
ties to  Grumbkow,  who  thought  that  the  next  journey  of 
the  king  through  Prussia  would  be  a  good  opportunity 
to  ask  for  an  interview.  On  this  advice  Wolden  im- 
plored for  the  prince  the  favor  of  going  to  "kiss  the 
hem  of  the  king's  garment."  The  king  answered  : 
"  Must  remain  at  Custrin.  I  will  know  the  moment  this 
wicked  heart  will  be  corrected  for  good,  without  hypoc- 
risy." At  last  one  day,  Wolden  received  an  order  from 
the  king  to  announce  to  "his  subordinate"  an  approach- 
ing paternal  visit;  he  added,  "As  soon  as  I  look  him 
straight  in  the  eyes,  I  can  tell  whether  he  has  improved 
or  not. " 231 

THE    ROYAL   VISIT. 

Frederick  William  had  chosen  for  the  date  of  meeting 
again,  his  own  birth-day,  August  15th.232  On  arriving  at 
Custrin,  he  went  immediately  to  the  Governor's  house, 
whence  he   sent   for   his   son.     The    prince  threw  him- 


THE    SECOND    EDUCATION.  315 

self  at  the  king's  feet,  who  commanded  him  to  rise,  and 
then  addressed  a  discourse  to  him. 

It  was  a  very  strange  one.  First,  reproaches  upon 
the  "  impious  project"  ;  a  solemn  tone  :  "  I  have  tried 
everything  in  the  world,  both  kindness  and  harshness,  to 
make  you  a  man  of  honor  "  ;  in  a  more  familiar  tone  : 
"  When  a  young  man  commits  foolish  acts,  makes  love 
to  women,  etc.,  he  may  be  pardoned  for  these  youthful 
faults."  Then,  with  anger  :  "But  to  do  with  premed- 
itation, such  impious  things,  this  is  unpardonable!" 
And  with  threats  :  "Listen  my  boy,  even  if  thou  wert 
sixty  or  seventy  years  old,  thou  couldst  not  order  me.  I 
have,  up  to  the  present  moment,  sustained  myself  against 
the  world,  and  I  know  how  to  bring  thee  to  reason!" 
An  interlude  of  comedy  :  the  miserly  father  reproaches 
the  prodigal  son  for  having  run  into  debt,  when  he  knew 
so  well  that  he  could  not  pay,  and  for  not  having  ac- 
knowledged the  bills  of  his  usurers.  But  the  king  ap- 
pears again  :  "  You  have  never  had  confidence  in  me; 
I  who  am  doing  everything  for  the  aggrandizement  of 
the  House,  the  army  and  finance,  and  who  am  work- 
ing for  you ;  for  this  will  be  for  you,  all  this,  if  you 
show  yourself  worthy  of  it!  " 

In  the  meanwhile  what  was  Frederick  doing?  Did  he 
look  his  father  straight  in  the  eyes,  as  he  wished  him  to 
do?  Suddenly,  the  father  reproached  him,  for  all  his 
efforts  to  gain  his  friendship — vain  efforts.  At  these 
words  Frederick  burst  into  tears  and  fell  on  his  knees. 
The  king  possessed  with  the  thoughts  of  the  "impious 
project,"  pressed  the  culprit  on  :  "  Let  us  see  ...  so 
it  was  to  England  that  you  wished  to  go."     On  receiv- 


316  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

ing  the  answer  in  the  affirmative,  he  said  these  terrible 
words:  "Well  now!  listen  to  what  would  have  been 
the  sequel  to  this.  Your  mother  would  have  fallen  into 
the  greatest  trouble  ;  for  I  should  have  suspected  her  of 
being  your  accomplice.  I  would  have  placed  your  sister 
for  the  remainder  of  her  life,  where  she  could  never  again 
see  the  sun  or  moon.  I  would  have  entered  Hanover 
with  my  army,  and  burned  and  sacked  the  country,  and 
had  it  been  necessary  would  have  sacrificed  my  life,  my 
country  and  my  people.  Behold  what  would  have  been 
the  result  of  your  wicked  conduct.  To-day,  I  should 
like  to  employ  you  in  both  military  and  civil  commis- 
sions. But  how  dare  I,  after  such  an  action,  present 
you  to  my  officers  and  servitors?  You  have  but  one 
way  of  raising  yourself  up  again  ;  that  is,  by  repairing 
your  fault,  at  the  price  of  your  blood." 

For  the  third  time  Frederick  fell  on  his  knees.  Then, 
the  father,  always  with  this  fixed  idea:  "Didst  thou 
corrupt  Katte  or  Katte  thou?  "  "  I  tempted  him."  "Ah! 
At  last!  I  am  pleased  to  know  that  you  have  told  the 
truth  once!"  Here,  a  moment  of  relaxation,  and  this 
irony  :  "  How  do  you  like  Custrin?  Have  you  still  as 
much  aversion  for  Wusterhausen,  and  your  '  shroud '  as 
you  called  it?  I  know  why  my  society  does  not  please 
you.  It  is  true,  I  know  nothing  about  French  manners; 
1  do  not  know  how  to  make  bons  mots,  nor  have  I  the 
manners  of  a  petit-maitre  ...  I  am  a  German  prince! 
Such  as  I  am,  will  I  live  and  die."  And  then  he  began 
again  with  his  old  grievances.  Every  time  he  dis- 
tinguished a  person,  Fritz  slighted  him,  looked  con- 
temptuously on  the  favored  one.    An  officer  was  arrested, 


THE    SECOND    EDUCATION.  317 

Fritz  sympathized  with  him.  A  fine  some  body  in  truth 
was  this  Fritz!  A  great  person!  It  was  really  worth  one's 
while  to  make  so  much  ado  over  him!  To-day,  no  one 
throughout  Prussia^  nor  at  Berlin  was  occupied  about 
him.  It  was  not  known  whether  he  was  in  the  world  or 
not.  If  such  or  such  a  one,  coming  from  Ciistrin,  had  not 
related  that  they  had  seen  him  play  at  foot-ball  with 
his  hair  dressed  in  the  French  fashion  (in  a  bag),  people 
would  not  know  whether  he  was  living  or  dead. 

Then  came  the  question  of  religion.  The  king  preach- 
ing against  predestination,  points  out  to  his  son  "the 
horrible  consequences  of  that  doctrine  which  makes  God 
the  author  of  sin,  and  denies  that  Christ  died  for  all 
men."  But  the  prince  hastens  to  declare  his  adhesion  "to 
the  Christian  and  orthodox  doctrine  of  His  Majesty." 
Paternally,  gently,  his  father  adjures  him  to  distrust 
these  unholy  beliefs.  If  he  meets  any  one  who  excites 
him  against  his  duties,  against  God,  the  king  and  his 
country,  he  must  fall  upon  his  knees  and  pray  earnestly 
to  his  Maker  to  deliver  him,  through  the  intervention  of 
His  Holy  Spirit,  from  these  bad  thoughts  and  lead  him  to 
mend  his  ways.  "And  if  you  put  your  whole  heart  in 
it,  Jesus,  who  wishes  all  men  to  be  saved,  will  grant  your 
prayer."  At  last,  the  king  pronounced  pardon:  "I 
forgive  you  all  that  has  passed  with  the  hope  of  your 
better  future  conduct."  Frederick,  at  these  words,  burst 
into  tears  again,  and  kissed  his  father's  feet. 

The  king  went  into  another  room.  Frederick  followed 
him.  They  were  speaking  of  His  Majesty's  birth-day. 
The  prince  dared  not  present  his  best  wishes,  but  fell 
on  his  knees.     The  king  raised  him  in  his  arms.     The 


318  FREDERICK   THE    GREAT. 

terrible  visit  ended,  the  king  went  out  and  re-entered 
his  carriage.  Before  the  assembled  crowd,  Fritz  kissed 
his  father's  feet  again  ;  before  the  crowd,  the  father  em- 
braced his  son. 

THE    NEW    REGIME    OF   LIFE. 

A  few  days  after,  Frederick  William,  "in  order  that 
his  son  should  feel  a  little  of  paternal  and  royal  pardon," 
prescribed  for  him  a  new  regime  of  life.  Three  times  a 
week,  in  the  morning,  the  prince  was  to  go  to  the  cham- 
ber of  war  and  administration,  where  his  seat  was  no 
longer  low  but  high,  by  the  side  of  the  President;  but 
he  was  to  sit  on  the  left  of  the  king's  place,  which  was 
empty.  The  remainder  of  the  time  was  at  his  disposal. 
He  could  leave  the  town,  on  condition  that  he  notified 
the  Governor  each  time,  to  visit  the  domains  of  which 
a  list  was  given.  The  present  thing  to  do,  was  to 
learn  by  practice,  what  he  already  knew  by  theory,  of 
economy.  Some  member  of  the  chamber  would  always 
accompany  him,  to  explain  the  cultivation  of  a  domain; 
how  to  work  it,  fertilize  it,  and  sow  the  seed  ;  how  to 
brew,  and  all  the  details  of  a  brewery,  from  the  prepara- 
tion of  the  malt  to  the  casking  of  the  beer.  Above  all 
things,  they  must  reason  with  him,  make  him  understand 
why  such  or  such  a  thing  is  done  in  such  or  such  a  way, 
and  if  there  is  room  for  it  to  be  done  in  a  different  and 
better  way;  show  him  how  farmers  are  able  to  pay  their 
farm  rent  and  make  money  out  of  it  besides.  Wolden 
must  always  be  with  him  on  these  little  trips.  He  must 
have  a  care  that  the  prince  puts  questions  about  these 
things    "himself,"    about    everything  he    sees,  and    in- 


THE    SECOND    EDUCATION.  319 

forms  "  himself  well  upon  every  detail."  These  expe- 
ditions, be  it  understood,  are  no  pretext  for  pleasure 
parties.  The  employe  of  the  domain,  who  receives 
the  prince,  will  lay  covers  for  live  only,  at  eight 
groschens  per  person.233 

Besides  this,  the  king  desired  Wolden  "to  give  him  a 
pleasure  from  time  to  time,"  such  as  an  excursion  on  the 
river,  hunting  and  other  things  permissible,  but  he  must 
teach  the  prince  to  use  his  own  hands  and  load  his  gun 
"himself."  The  prince  could  have  the  right  to  invite  two 
guests  at  each  repast,  and  dine  out  twice  a  week,  but  no 
woman  must  be  invited.  One  of  the  "three"  must  al- 
ways accompany  him,  sleep  by  his  side,  and  prevent  him 
from  speaking  to  anyone  alone,  above  all  to  any  girl  or 
woman.  French  books,  German  "  laical "  books,  music, 
the  play  or  the  dance  were  interdicted,  as  before,  for 
Wolden  must  teach  his  subordinate  "solid  things."  Of 
course,  the  prince  must  thank  God  fervently  for  having 
changed,  through  His  mercy,  his  bad  heart,  and  for  hav- 
ing led  him  back  to  Jesus  Christ.  Continue  to  invoke 
His  powerful  aid,  and  for  this  purpose  they  must  have 
morning  and  evening  prayer  with  hymns,  and  a  chapter 
in  the  Bible  read  with  befitting  thankfulness  and  de- 
votion.234 

The  King  of  Prussia  was  severe  even  in  his  pardons; 
the  exiles  of  Custrin  had  hoped  for  better  things,  but 
were  resigned.  They  had  taken  a  step  towards  liberty. 
It  was  much  for  the  king  to  pronounce  the  word  of  par- 
don, which  never  fell  readily  from  his  lips.  "I  have  be- 
lieved, up  to  this  time,"  said  the  prince  to  Hille,  "that 
my  father  had  not  the  least  sentiment  of  love  for  me. 


320  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

I  am  now  convinced  that  he  is  .  .  .  .  finally  to 
sever  this  reconciliation  which  is  to  be  for  all  time,  the 
devil  himself  will  have  to  interfere  .  .  ."235  To  keep 
the  devil  from  meddling,  Grumbkow,  continued  his  good 
offices.  Pie  also  wrote  his  little  instructions  for  the  Cus- 
trin  people. 

The  clever  man  knew  wonderfully  well  "the  slippery 
dangerous  ground,"  where  he  had  maneuvered  for  so  long 
a  time  without  falling.  He  recommended,  first  of  all,  re- 
ligion, "that  source  upon  which  depends  all  happiness 
in  life  and  interior  tranquillity."  Towards  the  king,  he 
advised  "  an  even,  natural  and  respectful  conduct."  The 
prince  must  always  give  to  the  king  the  title  of  Majesty.  In 
his  conversations  with  his  father,  he  must  answer  ques- 
tions precisely,  never  vary,  give  his  advice  when  asked; 
he  will  have  need,  if  he  foresees  that  this  advice  does  not 
conform  to  the  paternal  ideas,  of  always  using  this  ex- 
pression :  "If  Your  Majesty  orders  me  to  do  so,  and  if 
I  must  say  what  I  think,  it  is  such  or  such  a  thing,  but 
I  can  nevertheless  be  very  much  deceived  in  the  matter 
and  my  little  experience  can  easily  err."  Particularly, 
no  spirit  of  raillery,  nor  expressions  of  jest,  even 
though  it  refer  to  the  lowest  domestic.  Neither  must 
there  be  a  reserved,  gloomy,  austere  air.  The  king  de- 
tests raillery,  but  likes  a  pleasant  manner. 

In  all  that  the  prince  does  in  the  king's  presence,  he 
must  always  affect  to  take  pleasure  in  it,  whether  he 
does  or  not.  "It  is  very  important  that  the  prince 
should  appear  to  take  more  pleasure  in  the  society  of  the 
generals  and  officers  of  the  king  than  in  all  others:  a 
gracious  smile  or  look  to  one  of  the  civil  rank  will  be 


THE    SECOND    EDUCATION.  321 

enough."  Avoid  those  who  have  the  misfortune  to  dis- 
please the  king  ;  do  not  show  them  too  much  compas- 
sion, do  not  imitate  the  conduct  of  those  spoken  in  Sec- 
ond Samuel,  15th  chapter,  2,  3,  4,  5  and  6  verses.  Take 
care  not  to  show  outwardly  a  preference  for  the  queen, 
"for  the  suspicions  that  have  been  aroused  on  this  account 
have  been  the  cause  of  much  sorrow  to  the  illustrious 
mother  and  well-beloved  son.  The  incomparable  Crown 
Princess  has  the  right,  in  a  thousand  ways  to  the  affec- 
tion, confidence  and  friendship  of  her  brother,  but  in  the 
beginning,  it  must  be  limited."  And  finally  much  pru- 
dence must  be  shown  in  intercourse  with  foreign  min- 
isters, preferring  those  whose  interests  are  the  same  as 
the  king's,  and  whom  His  Majesty  favors.  As  for  af- 
fairs, whether  they  be  military,  political  or  domestic, 
do  not  mix  with  them  on  any  account,  either  directly  or 
indirectly;  do  not  show  the  least  curiosity.  If  His 
Royal  Highness  is  anxious  to  know  anything,  let  him 
address  himself  to  those  people  in  whom  he  can  trust, 
who  have  the  king's  confidence,  as  well  as  some  justice 
and  honor. 

For  the  rest,  Grumbkow  trusts,  in  order  to  supply  all 
that  is  lacking  in  his  counsels,  in  the  sagacity  and  dis- 
crimination of  His  Highness.  He  gives  a  last  advice. 
When  the  prince  comes  to  Berlin,  let  him  request  the 
king  to  assemble  in  an  apartment,  the  ministers  and 
generals.  Then  let  him  declare  to  them,  in  a  little  dis- 
course, his  repentance  for  having  displeased  his  father, 
and  his  desire  to  wipe  out  this  fault  with  his  blood,  when 
an  opportunity  offers,  wherein  the  glory  and  the  arms  of 
the  king  are  interested ;  the   oath  at  Custrin  might  be 


322  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

supposed  to  be  forced;  he  wished  to  renew  and  confirm 
it.  It  could  be  terminated  by  raising  two  fingers  and 
saying:  "I,  Frederick  of  Prussia,  swear  to  the  all- 
powerful  God,  that  I  will  remain  faithful  to  my  king, 
seignior  and  father  unto  death.  If  I  tell  the  truth,  may 
God  through  Jesus  Christ,  aid  me.     Amen." 

In  drawing  to  a  close,  Grumbkow  praised  the  disin- 
terestedness of  the  prince's  friends.  He  asked  no  othor 
favor  of  the  prince  than  to  believe  him  to  be  his  and  the 
king's  faithful  servitor,  and  not  to  give  ear  to  the  ugly 
reports  which  had  been  circulated  about  him.  "Now  the 
only  thing  left  for  me  to  do,"  said  the  honest  man,  "  is 
to  put  my  trust  in  God.  In  te,  Domine\  speravi,  non 
confundar  in  ceternum."™ 

Frederick  was,  in  fact,  endowed  with  "  enough  intel- 
ligence and  discernment "  to  take  pleasure  in  reading 
these  suggestions  of  his  father's  courtier,  who  aspired 
to  become  his,  also.  He  hated  Grumbkow.  He  counted 
well — on  becoming  the  master — upon  confounding,  in 
time,  this  man  who  flattered  himself  that  he  would  not 
be  confounded  in  eternity.  But  he  resolved  to  be  agree- 
able to  his  "dear  general,"  as  well  as  to  all  others 
whose  bad  offices  he  dreaded. 

He  was  admirably  docile,  and  appeared  contented 
with  the  permitted  pleasures,  but  he  added  to  them.  It 
is  impossible  that  his  "  superiors  "  could  have  refused 
him  "laical"  books.237  Frederick  could  not  keep  from 
reading;  he,  above  all  others,  who  when  but  a  child, 
arose  in  the  night  to  devour  romances  by  the  light  of  a 
lamp  hidden  in  a  chimney.  We  do  not  know  much 
about  his  intellectual  history  during  the   Ciistrin  days  ; 


THE    SECOND    EDUCATION.  323 

his  daily  companions  were  very  careful  to  keep  it  out  of 
their  reports.  A  few  confidential  messages  in  the  letters 
from  Hille  to  Grumbkow,  and  from  Grumbkow  to  Seck- 
endorff,  give  us  the  information,  however,  that  he  con- 
tinued to  eat  forbidden  fruit.  He  was  always  "  Freder- 
ick the  Philosopher."  His  obstinacy  in  the  doctrine  of 
predestination,  and  his  dangerous  backsliding  all  came 
from  philosophy:  this  dogma  interested  him  because  it 
enveloped  the  great  philosophical  question  that  occupied 
his  whole  life, — that  of  human  freedom.  He  discussed 
it  with  Hille  as  he  had  done  with  Miiller  in  the  prison, 
as  he  will  do  later  with  Voltaire.  It  was  one  of  the 
noble  pleasures  of  this  young  man  to  reason,  discourse 
and  argue  upon  these  profound  questions.  He  already 
thought  that  he  was  a  "moralist."  Science  solicited 
also  his  intelligence;  he  was  curious  about  the  great 
problems  and  the  answers  that  philosophy  then  sought  to 
give  to  them.  "I  have  become,"  said  he,  "philosoph- 
ical and  mechanical."238  Again,  he  said:  "  I  am  a  musi- 
cian." But  above  all,  he  believed  himself  to  be  a  "great 
poet."  He  knew  verbatim  the  "Art  of  Poetry,"  of  Ar- 
istotle; that  is  to  say,  the  admirable  treatise  on  the 
ways  of  finding,  through  the  mind,  the  elegant  expres- 
sions in  language  of  the  human  passions.  Odes,  satires, 
epigrams,  idyls,  epics,  tragedies,  he  knew  the  rules 
of  all,  by  the  translation  of  Aristotle,  and  certainly  by 
Boileau  also,  for  whom  he  confessed  later  his  admira- 
tion. But  he  was  not  contented  to  merely  admire  these 
masters  :  he  tried  to  imitate  them  and  applied  himself 
so  well  to  the  work  that  "he  bit  his  nails  to  the  quick." 
Hille  could  not  refuse  to  listen  to  his  poetry.    He  makes 


324  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

game  of  the  young  poetic  aspirant  by  reminding  him  of 
the  scene  of  the  sonnet  in  the  "Misanthrope."  "Ah! 
those  beautiful  verses  of  Moliere,"  cried  the  prince.  But 
he  was  not  discouraged,  and  he  continued  to  compose 
verses,  like  the  following,  for  example,  which  he  ad- 
dressed to  Grumbkow: 

CONSEIL  A  MOY-MfiME. 

sur  l'air:    Badiner. 

Parmi  les  tristes  circonstances 
Souffrez  avec  patience, 
Jamais  n'  allez  outre  cela. 
Raissonnez,  mais  restez-en  la. 

Ne  donnez  point  dans  la  tristesse, 
Fuyez  surtout  la  paresse; 
En  bon  train  alors  vous  voila\ 
Raisonnez,  mais  restez-en  la. 

Faites  bien  des  chansonettes, 
Car  ce  seront  pour  vous  des  fetes, 
Badinez  avec  tout  cela. 
Raisonnez,  mais  restez-en  la. 

La  chambre  et  les  commissaires 
Qui  font  le  metier  des  corsaires, 
Vous  pourrez  avec  tout  ceux-l& 
Raisonnez,  mais  restez-en  la. 

Ne  faites  a  personne  de  querelle, 
Restez  I  vos  amis  fidelle, 
Et  pour  le  reste,  Ion,  Ian,  la 
Raisonnez,  mais,  restez-en  la. 

Donnez  tout  le  respect  au  Maitre, 
Gardez-vous  toujours  des  traitre 
Et  faites  tout  pour  ce  but-la 
Raisonnez,  mais  restez-en  la. 


THE    SECOND    EDUCATION.  325 

Ennuyez-vous  bien  pour  complaire 
Et  faites  toutes  vos  affaires 
Et  soyez  content,  Ion,  Ian,  la 
Raissonnez,  mais  restez-en  la. 

Reconnaissez  bien  les  services 
D'un  Ministre  les  bons  offices, 
Aimez-le  toujours  pour  cela, 
Raisonnez,  mais  restez-en  la. 

ADVICE  TO  MYSELF. 
sung  to  the  aie  :  Badiner. 

In  all  the  sad  circumstances  of  life,  suffer  with  patience ;  never  over-step 
this  bound.    Reflect,  but  go  no  farther. 

Yield  not  to  sorrow,  fly  above  all  things  from  laziness ;  behold  yourself 
then  in  excellent  spirits.    Reflect,  but  go  no  farther. 

Compose  snatches  of  song,  for  this  will  afford  you  pleasure ;  have  some 
sport  with  it.    Reflect,  but  go  no  farther. 

The  Administration  and  the  Commissariats  carry  on  the  trade  of  Cor- 
sairs ;  upon  all  this  you  may  be  able  to  reflect,  but  go  no  farther. 

Do  not  quarrel  with  anyone ;  remain  true  to  your  friends,  and  as  for  the 
rest,  la,  la,  la.    Reflect,  but  go  no  farther. 

Give  due  respect  to  the  Master.  Always  be  on  your  guard  against  trait- 
ors and  do  everything  with  this  object  in  view.    Reflect,  but  go  no  farther. 

Incommode  yourself  to  please  others  and  attend  to  your  own  affairs, 
and  be  contented,  la,  la,  la.    Reflect,  but  go  no  farther. 

Be  very  grateful  for  favors  given,  and  for  the  good  services  of  a  Minis- 
ter.   Love  him  always  for  them.    Reflect,  but  go  no  farther. 

Hille,  whose  opinion  the  prince  asked  upon  this  selec- 
tion, responded  that  these  verses  were  "good  for  a 
prince,  but  would  not  be  worth  much  had  they  been 
composed  by  a  private  individual."  This  is  true,  but 
the  young  man  who,  in  the  midst  of  enmci,  can  divert 
himself  with  a  song  to  the  air  of  "  Badiner"  will  be 
the  man  who,  in  reverses  and  on  the  eve  of  calamities, 
will  seek  consolation  in  the  delights  of  philosophy  and 
poetry. 


326  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

Frederick  had  the  opportunity  at  Custrin  of  trying  a 
few  love  verses.  A  few  days  after  his  father's  visit  he 
dined,  for  the  first  time,  at  Tamsel,  a  short  distance 
from  the  town,  at  the  home  of  Colonel  von  Wreech. 
The  place  was  very  pretty;  a  slight  outline  of  hills 
sheltered  one  side  of  it;  then  opened  the  endless 
plain,  watered  by  the  Wartha,  a  sluggish  stream, 
which  joined  the  Oder,  likewise  a  slow  stream,  a 
short  distance  farther  on;  a  real  Holland  landscape 
both  in  sky  and  water.  The  house  was  also  beau- 
tiful. It  had  been  built  by  Field-Marshal  von  Schon- 
ing,  a  Brandenburg  hero  of  the  days  of  the  Great 
Elector,  who  made  himself  illustrious  by  fighting 
the  infidels  under  the  walls  of  Ofen.  He  had  left  a 
legend.  The  peasants  of  Tamsel  relate  that  he  set  out 
to  fight  the  Turks  at  the  head  of  a  forest  of  pines;  when 
he  arrived  before  Ofen,  he  changed  his  trees  into  giant 
soldiers,  who  took  the  assaulted  place.  Schoning  was 
for  that  time  and  that  country  a  great  lord.  It  was  a 
real  castle  that  he  had  built,  with  high  windows  facing 
the  park,  where  trees  covered  the  incline  of  a  knoll.  He 
had  had  the  apartments  panelled  and  ornamented  in 
relief  by  Greek  workmen  whom  he  brought  back  with 
him  from  his  oriental  campaign.  The  stair-case  and  the 
ancestral  hall  inlaid  with  wood,  which  still  exist,  gave  a 
grand  air  to  the  building.  This  was  something  to 
please  Frederick,  coming  from  the  plain  little  house  at 
Custrin,  for  he  loved  elegance  and  rich  surroundings. 
But  the  pearl  of  the  place  was,  the  granddaughter  of  the 
legendary  field-marshal,  Madame  von  Wreech.240 

She  was  very  much  younger  than  her  husband.     A 


THE    SECOND    EDUCATION.  327 

blonde,  with  "a  lily  and  rose  complexion,"  she  was 
graceful  and  intelligent,  and  something  of  a  coquette. 
The  joy,  the  pride,  at  receiving  a  Crown  Prince,  who 
had  had  such  a  terrible  adventure  and  was  yet  so  young, 
made  her  still  more  amiable.  To  be  brief,  her  twenty- 
three  years  quickly  harmonized  with  Frederick's  eighteen 
years.  After  a  few  days,  the  prince  obtained  permission 
to  say:  "My  cousin,"  instead  of:  "Madame."  He 
wrote,  at  first,  in  prose,  but  he  met  on  the  banks  of  the 
Oder  the  muse  Urania,  who  reproached  him  for  not 
praising  the  one  he  loved  in  verse.  You  must,  said  she 
to  him,  be  very  heartless  and  very  German.  He  began 
then  to  rhyme,  alas! 

Permettez  moi,  Madame,  en  vous  offrant  ces  lignes, 
Que  je  vous  fasse  part  de  cette  verite, 
Depuis  que  je  vous  vois,  j'ai  ete  agite, 
Vous  etes  un  objet  qui  en  etes  bien  digne! 

These  verses  are  the  worst  that  the  muse  dictated  to  the 
prince,  but  the  others  are  not  much  better.  The  young 
poet  was  not  master  of  his  style;  he  was  not  sure  of  his 
language.  His  mythology,  his  Apollo  and  Muses,  are 
lost  in  Brandenburg,  like  the  Greek  temples,  the  Italian 
porticos,  and  the  statues  after  the  antique,  that  one  sees 
in  the  parks  surrounding  the  German  chateaux,  and 
which  seem  to  be  cold,  and  exiled  from  the  south,  under 
these  northern  clouds.  If  any  real  sentimentality  is  in 
it,  I  cannot  see  it. 

To  Frederick's  first  poetic  declaration,  the  lady  re- 
sponds in  the  same  manner,  but  with  a  pretty  little  ma- 
licious intent  : 

C'est  toute  ma  maison  qui  y  a  concouru  .... 
(It  is  all  my  household  that  has  aspired,  etc.) 


328  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

All  the  household — that  means  the  Colonel  himself. 
Nothing  proves  that  she  ever  had  a  secret  from  Von 
Wreech;  the  reports  spread  at  Custrin  and  Berlin,  when 
she  became  enceinte,  seem  mere  calumny.  She  took 
pleasure  in  this  badinage;  she  was  flattered  by  it,  noth- 
ing more.  Did  the  prince  ask  for  more?  There  is  in 
this  maker  of  love  sonnets  of  eighteen  years  a  little  too 
much  of  the  literati.  Even  his  writings  in  prose  are  of 
a  young  man  of  letters,  who  foresees  the  publisher. 

Nevertheless,  he  had  for  the  cousin  some  pretty  senti- 
mentality ;  he  admired  her  beauty,  majestic  carriage, 
manners,  her  whole  style,  which  outshone  even  prin- 
cesses. He  loved  her  because  she  was  graceful  and  had  in- 
telligence; he  had  respect  for  this  young  wife,  and  if  he  had 
committed  any  "imprudence"  in  her  presence,  he  begged 
humbly  to  be  forgiven.  In  short,  he  passed  happy  days 
at  Tamsel,  and  it  gave  him  some  pleasant  impressions, 
the  only  ones  of  the  kind  that  he  ever  tasted  in  his  life. 
It  was  a  fete  for  him  to  return  to  the  "Island  of  Calyp- 
so," as  Wolden  called  the  park  surrounded  by  the 
Wartha.  When  he  left  Custrin,  he  sent  his  picture  to 
the  "cousin,"  with  a  letter,  wherein  he  expressed  the 
desire  that  she  would  deign  to  look  from  time  to  time  on 
his  image,  and  think  :  "  He  is  a  good  enough  boy,  but 
he  tires  me,  for  he  loves  me  too  much,  and  often  angers 
me  with  his  inconvenient  affection."  There  is  a  grace 
and  a  little  air  of  melancholy  in  this  farewell.  Tamsel 
is  an  oasis  in  the  life  of  a  prematurely  dead  heart. 2il 

Frederick  composed  prose,  too,  and  very  prosaic  it 
was,  particularly  that  addressed  to  the  king.  He  gave 
an  account  of  his   visits  to  the  Domains.      Economy  is 


THE    SECOND    EDUCATION.  329 

the  principal  subject  of  the  correspondence,  upon  which 
he  enlarges  many  details,  that  happen  there  by  chance, 
but  he  chose  them  with  an  exquisite  art,  so  as  to  com- 
pose the  physiognomy  of  a  son  after  the  father's  own 
heart. 

Three  days  after  the  visit  to  Ciistrin,  he  thanked  the 
king  for  the  favors  that  had  been  given  him;  he  confessed 
his  faults  again;  he  acknowledged  himself  more  culpable 
than  his  father  supposed  him  to  be,  and  revealed  at  last 
the  secret  engagement  he  had  made  with  the  Queen 
of  England  to  marry  none  but  an  English  princess. 
Then  he  earnestly  requested  to  return  to  the  army,  not 
"out  of  flattery,"  but  from  his  very  heart:  "Do  what- 
ever you  wish  with  me  in  the  world;  I  will  be  con- 
tent with  everything ;  I  shall  be  delighted  if  I  can 
only  become  a  soldier  once  more."  If  he  served  and 
wished  to  serve  his  father,  "it  was  through  love  and 
not  duty."242  He  applied  himself  to  economy  and  to 
"household  accounts."  He  had  visited  the  Domain 
of  Wollup,  whence  formerly,  the  king  only  drew 
1,600  thalers  and  which  then  brought  in  2,200,  an 
excellent  revenue.  However,  it  is  possible  to  make 
a  "number  of  improvements,"  and  to  obtain,  by  dry- 
ing up  the  marshes,  an  increased  value  of  1,000 
thalers,  for  it  is  good  wheat  ground.243  At  Carzig,  the 
soil  is  not  so  good  as  at  Wollup;  there  is  much  sand 
and  in  some  places  lime.  A  forest  on  this  domain  has 
been  burned.  This  is  to  be  cleared  ;  if  they  waited 
for  the  wood  to  grow  again,  they  would  have  to  wait 
thirty  years  for  the  revenue.  The  intendant  thinks  it 
would  be  better    to    establish    a   metairie  (small  farm) 


330  FREDERICK   THE    GREAT. 

there:  the  prince  is  of  this  opinion;  he  estimates  that 
the  operation  would  bring  in  a  revenue  of  some  hundreds 
of  thalers.  He  visited  the  sheep  fold  and  stable  which 
were  in  a  very  good  condition.244  At  Lebus  the  crops 
were  sown  ;  the  weather  was  fine  for  tilling  the  soil. 
The  prince  had  seen  a  big  fellow  destined  for  one  of  the 
king's  regiments,  and  while  looking  at  him,  his  heart 
bled.  The  king  had  sent  him  a  pious  book;  he  thanked 
him  for  it  and  recognized,  in  all  submission,  the  good  and 
holy  intentions  of  his  father.245  He  had  made  the  plan, 
statement  and  contract  for  the  farm  of  Carzig;  they 
could  only  grow  rye  and  barley  there,  but  the  fields 
which  they  could  work  would  yield  ten  per  cent.  At 
Himmelstadt,  the  out-houses  were  in  a  very  bad  state; 
the  brewery  was  falling  in  ruins.  An  abandoned  church 
near  by  could  be  transformed  into  one  at  very  little  ex- 
pense. The  barns  should  be  moved  nearer  ;  they  are 
three  hundred  steps  away ;  it  is  too  far  and  impossible 
to  watch  over  the  cattle.  The  prince  was  to  return 
to  Wollup  to  gain  some  instruction  from  the  intendant, 
who  was  very  knowing  in  these  things,  and  make 
some  "solid  improvements." 246  In  the  meantime, he  speaks 
of  the  hunt,  where  he  regrets  being  still  awkward,  for 
he  missed  some  ducks  and  a  stag. 

Even  the  Marionettes,  that  he  detested,  interested 
him.  He  is  too  perfect.  The  father  reading  these  let- 
ters could  not  believe  his  eyes;  he  did  not  wish  to  be- 
lieve them.  He  answered  in  a  friendly  tone,  addressing 
him  in  the  old  familiar  way  as  "  My  dear  son."  He  con- 
gratulated him  upon  learning  economy  by  theory  and 
practice.     He  discussed  the  propositions  with  the  prince, 


THE    SECOND    EDUCATION.  331 

recommending  him,  "  to  observe  minutely  everything 
himself,  to  get  at  the  bottom  of  things,  to  go  into  detail, 
in  das  Detail  gehen;"  but  in  the  Fritz  of  Ciistrin,  he  al- 
ways saw  the  Fritz  of  other  times.  "  You  tell  me  that 
you  wish  to  become  a  soldier  again.  I  think  this  does 
not  come  from  your  heart.  You  only  wish  to  flatter 
me."  He  had  done  everything,  said  he,  to  inspire  his 
son  with  a  love  for  military  life,  but  he  had  not  succeed- 
ed. Whoever  loves  a  military  life  must  love  manly 
pleasures,  not  the  occupations  of  women,  not  to  take 
care  of  oneself,  not  to  be  afraid  of  heat  and  cold,  hun- 
ger and  thirst.  And  Fritz,  on  all  occasions,  took  good 
care  of  himself,  preferring  to  service  and  fatigue,  a 
French  book,  bons  mots,  a  comedy,  or  his  flute.  He  had 
neglected  his  company  of  cadets,  which  was  so  fine,  and 
was  such  a  good  one.  "Ah!  if  I  send  to  Paris  for  a 
flute-master,  a  dozen  fifers,  a  troupe  of  comedians,  a 
grand  orchestra,  two  dozen  dancing  masters,  a  dozen 
petits-maitres,  or  if  I  were  to  build  a  fine  theatre,  this 
would  please  thee  more  than  the  Grenadiers;  for  they 
are  of  the  canaille,  in  thy  eyes,  while  a  petit-maitre,  a 
little  Frenchman,  a  bon  mot,  a  little  musician,  a  little 
comedian  (ein  petit-maitre,  ein  franzoschen,  ein  bon 
mot,  ein  musiqueschen),  behold  all  these  are  noble  and 
royal  and  worthy  of  a  prince  (das  scheinet  was  nobler es, 
das  ist  was  konigliches  das  ist  digne  d'  un  prince).  Dost 
thou  know  thyself  well?  These  were  thy  true  sentiments 
up  to  the  time  of  thy  installation  at  Ciistrin.  What  thy 
inclinations  may  be  at  present,  I  know  not,  but  I  will 
find  out  by  thy  conduct." — To  become  a  soldier  again, 
so  be  it!     But  thou  must  first  become  a  good  economist. 


332  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

A  soldier  who  does  not  know  how  to  take  care  of  his 
money,  who  makes  debts,  is  a  worthless  one.  Charles 
XII.  was  a  brave  soldier,  but  a  bad  administrator.  When 
he  had  money,  he  wasted  it.  He  let  his  army  starve  to 
death,  and  was  not  able  to  establish  himself  again,  after 
he  had  been  vanquished.  Occupy  thyself  with  thy 
household  accounts;  learn  the  art  of  buying  bargains; 
save  something  each  time;  do  not  spend  thy  money  in 
little  snuff-boxes  and  cases.       .      .      ,"247 

It  is  easily  seen,  however,  that  the  king  only  desired 
to  be  convinced  little  by  little.  The  letters,  in  which 
Fritz,  the  flute-player,  the  Fritz  of  snuff-boxes,  cases 
and  bons  mots,  the  little  French  Fritz,  talked  about 
farms,  breweries  and  sheep-cotes;  these  letters  were 
written  to  please  him.  He  guessed  that  the  young  man 
had  but  repeated  the  lessons  that  were  given  him.  It 
certainly  was  not  Fritz  who  had  discovered  "a  number 
of  improvements"  possible  on  the  Wollup  domain;  it 
was  the  intendant.  And,  in  addition  to  this,  the  king 
must  have  recognized  the  work  of  Hille,  but  his  son  had 
listened,  since  he  repeated  it;  he  had  understood  it;  the 
fine  mannered  Fritz  had  entered  the  stables  and  his  deli- 
cate nostrils  had  inhaled  the  odor  of  the  manure.  The 
proof  that  the  king  had  been  insensibly  won  over,  and 
that  he  was  disposed  to  make  his  ordeal  lighter  and  to 
shorten  it,  is  that  he  permitted  the  prince  to  return  to 
Berlin,  the  latter  part  of  November,  1731,  to  witness 
his  sister's  marriage. 

THE  MARRIAGE  OF  WILHELMINA. 

At  last  the  King  of  Prussia  was  going  to  have  his  eld- 
est daughter  married. 


THE    SECOND    EDUCATION.  333 

After  the  terrible  scenes  of  the  month  of  April,  1730, 
Wilhelmina  had  been  a  prisoner  in  her  own  apartments 
at  the  castle,  in  Berlin. 

The  king  had  decided  to  settle  the  fate  of  his  daugh- 
ter, so  that  she  would  be  no  longer  a  cause  of  embar- 
rassment, trouble  and  anger  to  him,  but  he  did  not 
yet  know  to  which  aspirant  he  would  give  her.  For 
a  long  time,  he  had  thought  of  marrying  her,  in  case 
he  had  to  renounce  the  English  marriage,  either  to 
the  Margrave  of  Schwedt  or  to  the  Duke  of  Weis- 
senfels.  The  Duke  was  a  prince  of  the  Empire  ;  we 
already  know  that  the  Margrave  was  of  the  House  of 
Brandenburg,  and  a  branch  issue  of  the  second  marriage 
of  the  Great  Elector.  In  the  interval,  Frederick  Will- 
iam talked  of  sending  his  daughter  "to  the  country," 
and  of  making  her  Coadjutrix  of  Herford.  Then  it 
became  known  that  he  had  fixed  his  choice  on  the 
Hereditary  Prince  of  Baireuth,  of  the  Franconian 
branch  of  the  Hohenzollerns.  Then  again,  it  was  said 
that  he  had  not  renounced  the  English  marriage  for 
Wilhelmina.  It  is  certain  that  the  queen  continued 
to  negotiate  with  London,  and  clung  to  this  hope. 
It  is  probable  that  the  king  himself,  in  the  tumultu- 
ous depths  of  his  thoughts,  agitated  this  project  together 
with  the  others,  and  that  he  would  have  been  con- 
tented if  King  George,  by  a  definite  and  decisive 
step,  had  asked  Wilhelmina's  hand  for  the  Prince  of 
Wales;  but  he  had  placed  the  negotiation  in  such  a 
light  that  England,  who  had  never  even  shown  any 
generosity  in  all  the  matrimonial  negotiation,  would 
not    give    him    the    pleasure    of    an  amende  honorable. 


334"  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

She  (England)  would  have  been  quite  willing  to  ar- 
range tlrj  double  marriage  of  Wilhelmina  with  the 
Prince  of  Wales,  and  Frederick  with  the  Princess 
Amelia,  because  that  would  have  implied  a  concession 
on  the  part  of  the  King  of  Prussia.  But  for  the  sin- 
gle marriage  she  refused  to  make  the  advances  ardently 
solicited  by  the  queen. 

Wilhelmina  relates248  with  a  great  elaboration  of 
detail,  the  history  of  the  days,  weeks  and  months  that 
she  suffered  in  awaiting  her  misfortune,  as  she  termed 
this  marriage,  which  she  held  to  be  a  misalliance. 

One  day  the  king  made  known  to  her  through  the  con- 
cierge, Eversmann,  that  she  must  be  resigned,  as  she  was 
positively  going  to  become  the  Duchess  of  Weissenfels. 
The  concierge  had  begun  by  declaring  to  her  that  he  had 
always  loved  her,  having  carried  her  about  in  his  arms 
many  times  when  she  was  a  child,  and  "  everybody's  fa- 
vorite." He  then  told  her  what  was  going  on  at  Potsdam, 
where  the  king  made  the  queen  suffer  a  thousand  mar- 
tyrdoms and  she  had  grown  to  be  very  thin.  Wilhel- 
mina responded  haughtily  to  him,  but  the  next  day,  on 
awaking,  she  found  Eversmann  near  her  bed.  He  re- 
lated another  scene  which  took  place  the  evening  before 
at  Potsdam,  and  the  order  that  he  had  received  to  make 
some  purchases  for  the  nuptials,  and  the  horrible  threats 
that  the  king  made  to  all  those  who  would  raise  opposi- 
tion to  the  marriage,  particularly  to  Mademoiselle  von 
Sonsfeld,  whom  he  was  going  to  have  whipped  publicly  on 
all  the  squares  of  the  city.249  Turning  toward  this  lady- 
in-waiting,  Eversmann  sympathized  with  her  for  being 
condemned  to   such  infamous  punishment,   at  the  same 


THE    SECOND    EDUCATION.  335 

time  saying  that  it  would  give  him  pleasure  to  see  the 
appetizing  spectacle  of  the  whiteness  of  her  back  re- 
lieved by  the  blood  coursing  down  it. 

While  this  "vile  domestic"  acquitted  himself  of  the 
king's  messages,  the  wife  of  a  valet  de  chambre  brought 
Wilhelmina  word  from  the  queen.  She  entreated  her 
daughter  to  consent  to  nothing:  "A  prison,"  said  she, 
"  is  better  than  a  bad  marriage."  Mile,  von  Sonsfeld, 
whom  the  king's  threat  did  not  move,  earnestly  advised 
the  princess  to  obey  the  queen.  Wilhelmina,  not  know- 
ing how  "to  rid  herself  of  her  torments,"  closed  her 
door  and  began  to  play  on  the  harpsichord.  A  fright- 
ened lackey  entered,  announcing  that  four  gentlemen 
were  there,  who  had  come  to  speak  with  her  from  the 
king.  "  Who  are  they  ?  "  she  inquired.  In  his  fright 
the  servant  did  not  recognize  the  faces.  Mile,  von  Sons- 
feld came  before  the  gentlemen:  it  was  an  embassy  of 
State,  conducted  by  Grumbkow.  Introduced  into  the 
apartments  of  the  princess,  they  requested  the  lady-in- 
waiting  to  retire,  and  closed  the  door  carefully.  Wilhel- 
mina "  was  in  a  terrible  state  of  fear,  at  sight  of  these 
proceedings." 

Grumbkow  stated  that  the  negotiations  relative  to  the 
marriage  were  broken.  He  recalled  the  unhappiness  that 
the  obstinacy  of  the  Court  of  England  and  the  intrigues 
of  the  queen  had  brought  to  the  House.  He  announced 
other  misfortunes  that  would  befall  the  queen,  the  prin- 
cess and  the  Crown  Prince,  who  was  leading  a  miserable 
life  at  Custrin.  The  family  peace  was  depending  upon 
Wilhelmina's  resolution.  It  is  true  that  she  had  been 
reared  with  ideas  of  grandeur  and  flattered  herself  with 


336  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

the  prospect  of  wearing  a  crown,  but  great  princesses 
were  born  to  be  sacrificed  for  the  good  of  the  State. 
Besides,  grandeur  after  all  did  not  constitute  happiness. 
The  best  thing  to  do  then  was  to  submit  to  the  decrees 
of  Providence.  If  the  princess  obeyed,  the  king  would 
give  her  double  the  amount  he  gave  his  other  children 
and,  immediately  after  the  nuptials,  would  accord  entire 
freedom  to  her  brother.  If  she  was  head-strong,  the 
order  that  Grumbkow  carried,  and  which  he  then  showed 
to  her,  was  to  conduct  the  princess  to  the  fortress  of 
Memel  immediately,  and  Mile,  von  Sonsfeld  and  the 
other  domestics  were  to  be  treated  with  severity. 

In  the  course  of  the  harangue,  the  Minister  had  named 
the  designed  husband.  It  was  no  longer  the  "  gross 
Weissenfels;"  it  was  the  Hereditary  Prince  of  Baireuth. 
"He  is  of  the  House  of  Brandenburg,"  said  Grumbkow, 
"and  will  inherit,  after  his  father's  death,  a  fine  estate. 
As  you  do  not  know  him,  Madame,  you  can  have  no 
aversion  to  him. "  Wilhelmina  responded  with  her  custo- 
mary cleverness  that  all  she  had  heard  was  right  and  sen- 
sible, and  that  she  found  no  objections  to  it.  "She  did 
not  know,"  she  added,  "how  she  had  merited  the 
disfavor  of  the  kingr  He  had  disregarded  her  feel- 
ings  in  the  matter.  Why  had  he  never  spoken  to  her 
himself  of  her  marriage?  He  had  only  addressed  him- 
self to  the  queen,  and  made  use  of  the  services  of 
that  Eversmann  to  transmit  his  orders  to  her,  to  whom 
she  had  not  deigned  to  reply,  not  judging  it  proper  to 
communicate  with  him  through  a  low  domestic."  Now, 
as  she  learned  that  the  tranquillity  of  her  family  depended 
upon  her  decision,  she  determined  to  submit  to  the  will 


THE    SECOND    EDUCATION.  337 

of  the  king.  She  only  asked  for  the  permission  to  ob- 
tain the  queen's  consent.  But  the  four  gentlemen  ob- 
jected. "  You  exact  the  impossible,"  said  Grumbkow. 
"Everything  is  at  stake,"  added  another,  tearfully. 
Wilhelmina  walked  to  and  fro  seeking  an  expedient. 
Three  of  the  gentlemen  retired  to  the  embrasure  of  a 
window;  the  fourth,  Thulemeier,  who  was  on  the  queen's 
side  and  that  of  France  and  England,  took  this  opportu- 
nity to  approach  the  princess;  he  advised  her  to  assent  to 
all  they  exacted,  promising  that  the  marriage  should  not 
take  place.  He  charged  himself  with  making  the  queen 
understand  that  the  announcement  of  the  marriage  with 
the  prince  of  Baireuth  was  the  only  means  of  drawing 
from  England  a  favorable  declaration.  Thus  the  eter- 
nal intriguing  comes  up  again  at  this  tragic  moment. 
Three  men  bring  the  king's  order  ;  a  fourth,  the  advice 
to  feign  obedience.  Wilhelmina  grasped  the  subterfuge; 
she  approached  Grumbkow,  declared  that  she  was  ready 
to  sacrifice  herself  for  her  family,  and,  under  his  dicta- 
tion, wrote  a  letter  to  the  king.  When  she  was  alone 
she  fell  into  an  arm-chair,  where  Mile.  Sonsfeld  and  the 
M  company"  found  her  in  tears.  Everybody  in  dismay 
began  to  cry  with  her.250 

At  the  same  time  that  she  wrote  to  her  father,  Wilhel- 
mina wrote  to  the  queen.  She  asked  pardon  for  the 
fault  she  had  committed  in  obeying  the  king ;  but  she 
was  only  too  glad  to  become  the  instrument  of  the  hap- 
piness of  her  dear  mother  and  brother.  She  soon  re- 
ceived responses  to  her  letters:  the  king  said  that  he  was 
pleased  to  find  her  so  submissive  to  his  will,  that  God 
would  bless  her  and  never  abandon   her;  as  for  himself 


338  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

he  would  take  care  of  her  all  her  life,  and  prove  to  her,  on 
all  occasions,  that  he  was  her  faithful  father.  The  re- 
sponse of  the  queen  was  that  she  would  no  longer  recog- 
nize her  as  her  daughter  ;  that  she  would  never  pardon 
her  for  having  sacrificed  herself  to  the  coterie  of  her  per- 
secutors and  swore  eternal  hatred. 

Wilhelmina  soon  learned  through  Eversniann  that  the 
king  and  queen  were  to  return  to  Berlin.  When  she 
found  herself  in  the  presence  of  the  king,  she  was  sur- 
prised to  see  such  a  furious  look  on  his  face.  But  to  the 
question:  "Will  you  obey  me?"  she  answered  by 
throwing  herself  at  her  father's  feet  and  swearing  to  be 
submissive.  The  whole  physiognomy  of  the  terrible  man 
changed  ;  he  raised  her  up,  embraced  her,  and  gave  her 
a  piece  of  stuff  with  which  to  adorn  herself,  and  sent  her 
to  the  queen,  who  overwhelmed  her  with  abuses.  Sophia 
Dorothea  was  not  resigned  to  the  loss  of  her  aspirations. 
She  made  herself  believe  that  the  king  was  playing  a 
comedy,  to  constrain  King  George  to  say  the  decisive 
word  ;  and  as  the  king-,  the  days  following,  spoke  no 
longer  of  the  marriage,  as  no  one  besides  had  had  any 
news  of  the  prince  of  Baireuth  who  was  thought  to  be 
in  Paris,  she  assumed  a  most  charming  humor.  With 
the  best  grace  possible,  she  did  the  honors  of  the  castle 
to  a  numerous  company  of  princes  whom  her  husband 
had  invited  to  a  grand  review  of  twenty  thousand  men 
to  be  given  the  24th  of  May.  But  the  day  before,  the 
king,  after  having  requested  her  not  to  fail  in  going  to 
the  review  with  her  daughter,  commanded  her  to  enter- 
tain the  "princedom"  that  evening  and  have  them  sup 
with  her.     Then  he  retired   at  seven  o'clock.      "Prince- 


THE    SECOND    EDUCATION.  339 

dom "  played  at  faro  until  the  hour  for  supper.  Just 
as  the  company  was  about  to  be  seated  at  table,  a  post- 
chaise  crossed  the  court-yard  and  stopped  at  tHe  grand 
staircase.  Princes  alone  had  this  prerogative  ;  but  no 
prince  was  expected.  The  queen,  surprised,  inquired 
who  it  was ;  she  learned  that  it  was  the  prince  of 
Baireuth. 

44  The  head  of  the  Medusa  never  produced  more  terror 
than  this  news  caused  to  this  princess."  You  can  imag- 
ine how  the  supper  progressed.  When  the  guests  had 
retired,  Wilhelmina  begged  the  queen  to  release  her  from 
going  to  the  review  the  following  day,  but  the  king  had 
ordered  it,  and  therefore  it  must  be  done.  The  princess 
passed  a  sleepless  night,  watched  by  Mile,  von  Sonsfeld. 
She  arose  at  four  o'clock  in  the  morning,  "  and  put  on 
three  coiffes  to  hide  her  trouble,"  and  presented  herself 
in  this  guise  to  the  queen,  whom  she  accompanied  to  the 
review. 

They  passed  at  the  head  of  the  troops;  then  the  colonel, 
who  was  conducting  the  queen, having  placed  the  carriage 
near  a  battery,  said  to  Her  Majesty  that  he  had  orders 
to  present  to  her  the  prince  of  Baireuth  ;  this  was  imme- 
diately done.  With  a  proud  air,  the  queen  received  her 
future  son-in-law  and,  after  a  few  uninteresting  questions, 
made  him  a  sign  to  retire.  Wilhelmina,  disturbed  by 
the  heat  and  her  emotion,  left  the  queen's  carriage  to 
go  and  hide  herself  in  that  of  the  ladies-in-waiting. 

After  the  dinner  which  followed  the  review,  the  king, 
in  an  abrupt  manner,  seized  the  hand  of  the  Margrave 
and  conducted  him  to  his  daughter.  During  the  repast 
he  asked  for  a  large  covered  goblet,  and  drank  the  health 


340  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

of  the  Margrave,  addressing  himself  to  Wilhelmina,  who 
was  forced  to  drink  a  responding  toast.  The  trouble, 
anguish  and  despair  of  the  princess  drew  tears  from  the 
witnesses  of  this  scene.251 

The  31st  of  May  the  king  led  the  Margrave  to  the 
queen's  apartments,  and  presented  him  to  her  as  her  fu- 
ture son-in-law  and  left  them  in  tete-a-tete.  Sophia  Do- 
rothea, who  had  given  a  good  welcome  to  Baireuth,  in 
the  king's  presence,  then  said  "sharp  things"  to  him. 
But  the  prince  did  not  lose  his  self-possession,  and,  ill 
the  evening,  as  the  queen  was  withdrawing,  he  paid  her 
a  very  pretty  compliment.  He  was  not  unaware,  said  he, 
that  she  had  destined  her  daughter  to  wear  a  crown, 
and  that  the  rupture  with  the  two  Courts  of  England  and 
France  had  given  him  the  honor  of  being  chosen  by  the 
king.  He  was  the  happiest  of  mortals,  for  daring  to 
aspire  to  a  princess  for  whom  he  felt  all  the  respect  and 
sentiment  due  her,  but  these  same  sentiments  made  him 
cherish  her  too  much,  to  plunge  her  in  unhappiness, 
through  a  marriage  that  was  perhaps  distasteful  to  her. 
He  begged  that  the  queen  would  express  herself  freely 
on  the  subject.  Upon  her  answer  would  depend  all  the 
happiness  or  unhappiness  of  his  life,  for  if  it  was  not  fa- 
vorable he  would  sever  all  his  engagements  with  the 
kin«:,  however  unfortunate  it  would  be  for  him.  The 
queen  was  silenced,  but  she  doubted  the  sincerity  of  the 
prince,  and  responded  that  she  could  only  obey  the  or- 
ders of  the  king.  "He  made  a  very  clever  little 
speech,"  she  said  to  one  of  her  ladies,  "but  he  did  not 
catch  me." 

The  betrothal  was  celebrated   June  1st.     That  morn- 


THE    SECOND    EDUCATION.  341 

ing,  the  king,  while  embracing  Wilhelmina  impetuously 
gave  her  the  betrothal  ring  in  which  was  set  a  large 
brilliant.  He  added  a  present  of  a  service  of  gold,  say- 
ing that  it  was  a  mere  bagatelle,  since  he  intended  to  give 
her  more  valuable  presents  if  "  she  did  the  thing  with  a 
good  grace."  In  the  evening  the  court  and  the  princely 
guests  awaited  the  king  in  the  state  apartments.  The 
king  appeared  with  the  prince.  He  was  agitated  to  such 
an  extent  that  instead  of  having  the  betrothal  in  the 
grand  hall  where  all  were  assembled,  he  immediately  ap- 
proached his  daughter,  and  holding  her  fiance  by  the 
hand,  made  him  exchange  rings  with  her.  The  queen 
was  so  changed  that  everybody  noticed  it.  The  princess 
was  pale;  her  hands  and  knees  trembled,  and  had  she  not 
been  supported  by  her  mother  and  another  princess,  she 
would  have  fallen.252  She  inclined  before  her  father,  to 
kiss  his  hand;  the  king  raised  her  up  and  held  her  a  long 
time  in  his  arms;  they  mingled  their  tears  together,  for 
he  also  cried.  He  was  in  tears  the  whole  evening,  and 
just  as  the  nuptial  ball  commenced,  he  advanced  and  em- 
braced Mile,  von  Sonsfeld,  whom  he  had  threatened  a 
short  while  since  to  have  publicly  whipped. 

He,  as  well  as  all  the  guests,  was  sad  during  the 
lugubrious  repast  that  followed  the  ball.  "  Never," 
said  the  English  minister,  "was  supper  more  melan- 
choly. All  eyes  were  fixed  upon  the  queen  and  princess; 
silence  and  the  tears  that  coursed  down  the  cheeks  of 
those  present,  showed  the  sympathy  that  scene  of  injus- 
tice awakened  in  their  hearts."253 

From  this  injustice,  the  author  suffered  as  well  as  the 
victim.     For  six  years  the  marriage  affair  had  tormented 


342  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

the  king.  He  had  managed  very  badly  indeed,  but  oth- 
ers had  also  been  at  fault.  England  had  never  attacked 
the  question  with  sincere  good  will;  the  Queen  of  Prus- 
sia, the  Crown  Prince,  and  the  Princess  Wilhelmina  had 
intrigued  until  it  had  amounted  to  treason.  And  so  the 
king  determined  to  put  an  end  to  the  affair,  but  he  was 
troubled  by  the  resistance  and  the  tears  of  his  daughter 
and  wife.  He  felt  acutely  that  in  forcing  his  daughter 
he  was  committing  a  mean  act.  To  distract  himself  from 
this  trouble,  he  had  recourse  to  the  ways  already  famil- 
iar to  him,  of  dining  out  and  having  one  of  his  orgies, 
which  ended  in  insomnia  and  night-mare.254  He  dreaded 
these  scenes  of  reproach  and  lamentation  so  much  that 
he  evaded  tete-a-tetes  with  the  queen  and  Wilhelmina. 
Several  times  we  see  him  communicate  with  them  by  let- 
ter or  messenger.  During  the  days  preceding  the  be- 
trothal, he  betrayed,  on  every  occasion,  his  embarrass- 
ment and  something  of  a  secret  shame.  He  did  not 
forewarn  the  queen  of  the  arrival  of  the  prince  of 
Baireuth,  whom  he  had  presented  to  her  by  a  colonel. 
At  the  dinner  after  the  review,  when  he  introduced  the 
suitor  to  Wilhelmina,  and  in  the  betrothal  ceremony,  his 
inward  disturbance  was  revealed  by  his  gruff,  abrupt 
manner.  And  then  he  overwhelmed  his  daughter  with 
caresses  and  presents  ;  he  covered  her  with  his  tears. 
Wilhelmina  saw  clearly  "  that  he  was  reluctantly  giving 
her  in  marriage." 

It  seems  that  there  was  a  fatality  hanging  over  the 
heads  of  this  family,  condemning  all  the  members  to 
make  one  another  suffer. 

These    sad    betrothal  ceremonies   gave   no   repose  to 


THE    SECOND    EDUCATION.  343 

the  princess.  The  queen,  who  still  hoped  to  break  the 
marriage,  forbade  her  daughter  to  show  any  politeness  to 
the  Prince  of  Baireuth,  or  even  to  speak  a  word  to  him. 
She  sought  every  opportunity  "to  taunt"  her  son-in- 
law,  praising  the  grand  qualities  of  her  daughter,  and 
the  great  extent  of  knowledge  that  she  would  give  him. 
"Do  you  know,"  said  she,  "anything  about  history,  ge- 
ography, Italian,  English,  and  music?"  "I  trust  I 
know  my  catechism  and  the  credo"  answered  the  prince, 
laughing.  The  king,  on  his  side,  made  the  prince's  life 
hard,  whose  polished,  reserved  manners  he  did  not  like; 
he  essayed  to  inebriate  him  every  day,  "so  as  to  form 
and  strengthen  his  character." 

The  suitor's  situation  in  such  a  family  was  a  singular 
one.  As  the  marriage  was  not  to  be  celebrated  until 
November,  he  asked  the  king  for  a  regiment ;  it  was 
given  him.  Before  leaving  he  had  an  explanation  with 
Wilhelmina.  He  repeated  to  her  what  he  had  said  to 
the  queen,  that  he  would  not  have  dared  himself  to  as- 
pire to  her  hand  ;  the  king  had  first  made  the  proposi- 
tion to  him,  but  he  was  ready,  if  she  wished  it,  to  sever 
the  engagement,  and  make  himself  unhappy  for  the  rest 
of  his  existence.  He  said,  with  tears  in  his  eyes,  the 
first  words  of  love  that  Wilhelmina  had  ever  heard.  "I 
was  not  accustomed  to  such  jargon,"  she  said.  But  she 
found  a  pleasure  in  it  that  the  arrival  of  the  queen  in- 
terrupted. Her  mother  did  not  lose  sight  of  her  an  in- 
stant. The  same  evening  of  this  interview,  as  Wilhel- 
mina and  the  prince  were  breaking  together  a  bon-bon 
with  some  device  on  it,  she  arose  from  the  table  and 
led  the  princess  away.  She  was  ashamed  of  her  "for  not 
having  more  modesty." 


34:4  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

Sophia  Dorothea  was  always  expecting  good  news 
from  England.  One  day  she  thought  she  had  received 
it.  It  was  at  Wusterhausen,  where  the  Prince  of  Baireuth 
had  just  come  to  join  the  royal  family.  The  queen  shut 
herself  up  with  her  daughter.  "To-day,"  said  she, 
"  your  atrocious  marriage  will  be  broken,  and  I  think 
your  silly  prince  will  depart  to-morrow,"  but  she  again 
was  deceived.  Nevertheless,  she  was  not  discouraged. 
She  retained  her  daughter  near  her,  as  much  as  she  could, 
watching  her,  and,  from  reports,  accused  her  of  co- 
quetting with  her  fiance  on  the  sly ;  but  days  and 
weeks  passed.  The  marriage  was  fixed  for  the  20th 
of  November.  Wilhelmina  relates  that  on  the  even- 
ing of  the  19th,  after  a  day,  which  she  had  spent  over- 
whelming her  daughter  with  unaccustomed  caresses,  the 
queen  took  her  aside:  "  You  are  going  to  be  sacrificed 
to-morrow,"  she  said  ;  but  added,  that  she  was  expecting 
a  courier,  who  would  give  the  king  entire  satisfaction, 
only  she  did  not  know  exactly  when  he  would  arrive. 
As  she  could  find  no  expedient  for  delaying  the  celebra- 
tion of  the  ceremony,  she  had  an  idea,  which  would  ease 
her  mind:  "Promise  me,"  said  she  to  her  daughter, 
"  to  have  no  familiarity  with  the  prince  and  to  live  with 
him  as  brother  and  sister,  as  this  will  be  the  only  way 
to  dissolve  your  marriage,  which  will  not  be  valid  unless 
this  comes  to  pass."255 

The  20th  of  November,  at  four  o'clock,  the  princess 
appeared  for  the  sacrifice.  The  queen  wished  to  pre- 
side at  the  toilet,  but  she  was  not  clever  in  the  vo- 
cations of  a  maid.  She  disarranged  the  coiffure,  of 
which    fashion    decreed  twenty-four    curls    of  hair,   as 


THE    SECOND    EDUCATION.  345 

thick  as  the  arm,  surmounted  by  the  crown.  Under 
this  burden,  clothed  in  a  robe  of  silver  cloth  trimmed 
with  Spanish  gold  point,  the  train  of  which,  twelve 
yards  in  length,  was  carried  by  four  ladies,  the  bride 
advanced  toward  the  great  hall,  where  the  King  of  Prus- 
sia had  amassed  all  his  luxury:  portraits  with  solid 
silver  frames,  silver  lustres  worth  50,000  crowns,  silver 
tables,  and  an  orchestra  stand  of  the  same  metal.  In- 
stead of  ordinary  wax-tapers  which  were  unworthy  a 
place  in  this  great  salon,  on  this  eventful  day,  large 
wax-lights  spread  their  smoke  abroad,  blackening  the 
faces,  and  dropping  their  grease  upon  the  heads  and 
clothes  of  those  present. 

The  benediction  was  attended  by  salvoes  of  artillery. 
Then  they  were  seated  at  table,  around  which  were 
ranged  thirty-four  princes.  After  supper  they  danced  a 
torch  dance  according  to  the  etiquette  of  the  German 
Court.  The  Marshals  of  the  House  carrying  their  batons 
of  office  began  the  march  ;  the  generals  followed,  each 
one  holding  a  lighted  taper.  The  newly  wedded  pair 
walked  gravely  around  the  room  twice.  The  bride  took 
each  one  of  the  princes  in  turn  by  the  hand  and  walked 
around  with  them  ;  the  bridegroom  did  the  same  with 
the  princesses.  The  fete  was  over.  The  Margravine 
was  first  conducted  into  a  gala  chamber,  where  her  sis- 
ters undressed  her,  the  queen  having  considered  her 
daughter  unworthy  of  the  honor  of  her  assistance, 
which  etiquette  gave  to  her ;  then  she  went  to  her 
own  apartment,  where  her  father  made  her  recite  aloud 
the  Pater  and  the  Credo.  At  supper,  the  king  had 
the  satisfaction  of  giving  the  husband,  "just  a  little 
too  much  wine. "  256 


346  FREDERICK   THE    GREAT. 

THE  CROWN  PRINCE  AT  THE  MARRIAGE  OF  HIS  SISTER. 

A  few  days  preceding  her  marriage,  Wilhelmina 
claimed  the  execution  of  the  promise  given  her,  to  par- 
don her  brother.  At  Ciistrin,  the  permission  to  leave 
was  looked  for  impatiently;  at  last  it  arrived,  but  only  for 
the  third  day  of  the  nuptials.  Neither  the  queen  nor 
the  princess  was  notified  of  Frederick's  arrival.  The 
king  suddenly  presented  him  to  the  queen,  saying  these 
words:  "  Here,  Madame,  is  Fritz,  who  has  returned." 
There  was  a  ball  in  the  grand  apartment,  where  six  hun- 
dred couples  were  dancing.  The  bride  was  leading  a 
quadrille  in  the  royal  picture  gallery.  "  I  loved  to 
dance,"  said  she,  "and  was  taking  advantage  of  this  op- 
portunity." Grumbkow  interrupted  her  in  the  midst  of  a 
minuet:  "Madame,  you  seem  to  be  bitten  by  a  tarantula. 
Do  you  not  see  those  strangers  who  have  just  arrived  ?  " 
She  stopped  suddenly  and,  looking  all  around  her,  saw 
only  a  young  man  dressed  in  gray,  "  who  was  unknown 
to  her."  "Go  and  embrace  the  Crown  Prince,"  said 
Grumbkow,  "  he  is  before  you."  "Oh!  Heavens!  my 
brother!  "  cried  she.  But  still  she  was  looking  for  him; 
Grumbkow  conducted  her  to  the  stranger.  When  she 
recognized  him,  (though  not  without  some  trouble,  for  he 
had  fattened  and  his  face  was  not  so  handsome  as  it  was 
before,)  she  threw  herself  on  his  neck,  laughing,  crying, 
and  talking  in  a  desultory  way.  Then  she  fell  at  the 
king's  feet,  thanked  him  and  begged  him  to  give  back 
his  friendship  to  Fritz,  whom  she  held  by  the  hand. 
Again  she  embraced  her  brother,  adding  the  most  tender 
words  of  affection.  The  assembly  was  in  tears,  but 
Fritz  only  responded  by  monosyllables.     His  sister  pre- 


'    THE    SECOND    EDUCATION.  347 

sented  his  brother-in-law  to  him;  he  did  not  say  a  word. 
"  He  had  a  proud  air  and  looked  down  upon  everybody." 
At  the  end  of  the  evening  festivities  she  reproached  him 
a  little  for  his  changed  manner.  He  responded  that  he 
was  still  the  same,  but  that  he  had  his  own  reasons  for 
acting  in  this  way. 

The  next  morning  Frederick  had  a  long  conversation 
with  his  sister.  He  told  her  of  his  misfortunes;  she  re- 
lated hers,  and  gave  him  to  understand  that  she  was  sac- 
rificing herself  for  him.  He  thanked  her,  with  caresses, 
but  they  did  not  come  from  his  heart.  Then  he  led  her 
into  a  conversation  on  different  subjects,  to  break  up 
these  confidences,  and  went  to  see  her  apartments.  He 
met  his  brother-in-law  who  had  discreetly  withdrawn  from 
the  princess'  chamber,  when  Frederick  had  entered. 
He  looked  at  him  "  from  head  to  foot  and,  after  having 
proffered  a  few  cold  polite  phrases,  retired."  It  was 
only  at  the  end  of  this  visit,  at  the  moment  of  fare- 
well, that  the  emotion  of  the  young  wife  moved 
Frederick.  "The  leave-taking  was  more  affectionate 
than  the  first  interview." 

"  I  no  longer  recognize  this  dear  brother,  who  has 
cost  me  so  many  tears,  and  for  whom  I  have  sacrificed 
myself,"  wrote  the  Margravine.  She  did  not  see  clearly 
either  her  own  heart  or  Frederick's.  She,  however,  al- 
lows us  to  see  her  heart,  without  knowing  it,  in  her 
Memoirs.  It  is  a  poor  heart,  not  naturally  tender,  and 
is  hardened  by  the  cruelties  of  life.  She  had  ardent- 
ly desired  the  marriage  with  the  Prince  of  Wales, 
because  she  had  heard  every  day  since  her  infancy, 
that    she    was    destined    to    wear    a  crown.      She  was, 


348  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 


although  she  was  careful  about  saying  it,  proud,  am- 
bitious, and  haughty,  and  felt  herself  capable  of  play- 
ing a  grand  role  in  the  world.  She  had  wit  and  pru- 
dence, and  keen  perceptions;  she  was  mistress  of  her- 
self, and  calm  in  dissimulation.  She  certainly  would 
have  comprehended  State  affairs.  The  resemblance  to 
her  brother  was  still  strong;  she  had  Frederick's  high 
forehead,  large  clear  hard  eye,  thin  drawn  lip,  and 
even  his  bend  of  the  head.  She  admitted,  the  day  of 
her  marriage,  that  the  arrangement  of  her  hair  made 
her  look  like  a  little  boy.  She  was  not  feminine,  ex- 
cept through  a  certain  sad  charm,  through  her  tears 
and  her  crying  and  fainting  spells. 

To  be  Queen  of  Great  Britain,  to  be  seated  on  the 
throne  that  the  Protestants  thought  to  be  the  first  in 
Europe,  what  a  dream,  particularly  if  her  mother 
had  told  the  truth,  "that  the  husband  destined  for 
her  was  but  an  ordinary  man  and  easy  to  manage;" 
for,  then,  the  queen  would  be  the  true  king.  Sev- 
eral times,  she  had  thought  of  attaining  this  desire ; 
but  the  repeated  deceptions,  the  knowledge  that  she 
had  of  the  character  of  the  king  and  queen,  the  vio- 
lent acts  of  the  one  and  the  unskillfulness  of  the  other, 
the  melancholy  in  which  she  lived,  had  brought 
her  at  an  early  hour,  to  look  for  no  good  for  herself. 
Existence  had  strengthened  in  her  mind  the  belief  in 
fatalism;  she  abandoned  herself  to  it.  During  those 
days  that  the  will  of  the  king  had  been  declared  to  her, 
she  seemed  to  be  resigned  to  the  marriage  with  the 
Prince  of  Baireuth.  She  no  doubt  had  spells  of  resist- 
ance and  revolt.       When  she  heard   that    the    English 


THE    SECOND    EDUCATION.  349 

were  murmuring  against  their  king,  that  they  still  de- 
sired to  see  her  established  in  England,  and  that  the  Prince 
of  Wales  could  not  resign  himself  to  the  idea  of  losing 
her,  her  pride  rejoiced,  but  her  hope  did  not  return.  She 
wished  to  make  herself  believe  that  she  had  no  in- 
clination for  the  Prince  of  Wales,  and  that  it  would  be 
perfectly  absurd  if  she  did,  as  she  did  not  know  him. 
She  accustomed  herself  little  by  little  to  the  marriage 
with  the  Prince  of  Baireuth.  The  day  she  received  the 
first  compliment  from  her  Jiance  by  a  low  bow  without 
words,  she  remarked  that  he  was  tall  and  well-formed, 
and  that  he  had  a  noble  mien,  and  in  default  of  beauty, 
his  physiognomy  was  open  and  pleasing.  Besides,  he 
was  of  a  great  House,  since  he  was  of  the  Brandenburg 
blood;  Wilhelmina  had  heard  it  said  that  the  court  of 
Baireuth  was  magnificent  and  greatly  surpassed  in  rich- 
ness that  of  Berlin.  These  fine  reports  flattered  her; 
she  sought  and  found  reasons  for  resigning  herself  to 
the  inevitable. 

One  can  follow,  in  the  Memoirs,  her  progress  in  the 
art  of  deceiving  herself.  In  her  writings,  she  lived 
again,  one  by  one,  those  days  of  the  year  1731,  where- 
in her  fate  was  being  decided.  It  must  have  been  ex- 
actly at  the  moment  that  her  resolution  had  been  taken, 
that  she  put  in  it  a  little  digression  upon  the  Baireuth 
family,  and  the  description  of  the  hereditary  prince.  A 
pretty  picture  of  a  man,  who,  although  he  had  some  few 
defects,  a  little  too  much  levity,  for  example,  "  and  such 
a  thickness  of  speech  that  he  expressed  himself  with  dif- 
ficulty," yet,  had  many  good  qualities,  "the  power 
of  maintaining  an  extreme  gaiety,   a  quick  conception, 


350  FREDERICK   THE    GREAT. 

penetrating  mind,  kindness,  generosity,  far-seeing  po- 
liteness and  an  even  temper,  all  the  virtues,  in  fact,  with- 
out a  single  vice."  To  be  brief,  the  perfect  suitor  for  a 
prudent  marriage.  But  underneath  this,  the  sentiments 
that  she  tried  to  hide  from  herself  re-appeared  at  the 
same  time.  She  felt  sharply  her  fall,  and  measured  it 
by  the  diminution  of  respect  shown  her:  "  I  was  every 
one's  idol,  while  I  had  hope  of  a  brilliant  future  ;  they 
courted  me  so  as  to  have  a  share  some  day  in  my  good 
fortune.  They  turned  their  backs  as  soon  as  their  hopes 
vanished."  Then  with  her  customary  bitterness  of  expres- 
sion: "I  was,"257  said  she,  "  the  target  of  this  Court." 
She  rendered  to  them  disdain  for  disdain,  and  van- 
quished at  last,  "  tired  of  being  the  toy  of  fortune,"  she 
came  to  a  decision.  She  married  so  as  to  put  an  end  to 
it  all  and  go  away. 

The  Margravine  is  so  sincere  on  these  points,  that  she 
leaves  to  a  second  consideration,  the  sacrifice  of  her  life 
for  the  peace  of  the  family,  for  the  happiness  of  her 
mother  and  the  liberty  of  her  brother.  This  devotion, 
in  her  heart  as  well  as  in  her  Memoirs,  was  of  a  second 
consideration.  She  may  have  ended  in  believing  that 
her  love  for  her  brother  was  the  principal  reason  for  her 
conduct,  but  it  came,  in  reality,  from  those  subtle  re- 
sources of  self-pride,  which  find  noble  motives  in  actions, 
that  are  first  resolved  upon  without  noble  intentions. 
No  doubt  Wilhelmina  believed  she  was  telling  the  truth 
when  she  explained  to  her  brother  "the  obligations  he 
owed  to  her."  She  imagined  she  had  the  right  to  com- 
plain of  this  "dear  brother,  who  had  cost  her  so  many 
tears    and   for  whom  she  was  sacrificing  herself."     But 


THE    SECOND    EDUCATION.  351 

her  brother  knew  the  real  state  of  things,  the  sad,  ugly, 
reality;  hence,   this  embarrassment  in  the  interview. 

When  Frederick  heard  at  Custrin  the  first  news  of  the 
approaching  marriage  of  his  sister,  — it  was  in  May,  — 
he  was  "  in  perfect  anguish."  "Behold,"  said  he,  "my 
sister  is  to  be  married  to  some  beggar,  and  made  un- 
happy for  the  rest  of  her  life."  This  was  the  first 
emotion,  a  revolt  of  pride,  at  the  same  time,  sorrow 
through  fraternal  friendship,  for  these  two  sentiments 
blended:  "He  had  a  deep  regard  for  this  worthy 
princess,"  wrote  Hille,  "and  would  like  to  see  her 
upon  the  most  brilliant  throne  of  Europe."  But,  after 
"hours  of  reflection,  he  became  a  little  more  recon- 
ciled." He  felt  that  his  sister  was  in  redoubtable 
hands  that  would  not  once  relax  their  hold.  From  him, 
all  resistance  was  useless  and  dangerous.  He  did  not 
care  about  provoking  a  new  conflict.  "  In  the  rigid  and 
tiresome  state "  in  which  he  was  held,  he  had  accus- 
tomed himself  not  to  complain.  Each  day  "increased 
the  desire  to  leave."  So  he  also  gave  himself  reasons 
for  being  resigned.  "The  glory  of  the  king,"  as  he 
said,  "exacted  that  the  House  of  Brandenburg  should 
not  humiliate  itself  longer  before  the  House  of  Han- 
over." "He  stormed  against  the  haughty  pride  of 
England."  He  ended  at  last  in  eulogizing  his  future 
brother-in-law. 25S 

In  this  state  of  mind,  he  reached  Berlin.  He  arrived 
in  the  midst  of  the  assembly  as  the  festivities  were  about 
drawing  to  a  close,  — invited  at  the  last  moment,  —  a 
stranger  in  a  gray  coat.  Since  he  had  left  this  Court, 
he  had  passed  days  in  which   he  had  come  face  to  face 


352  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

with  death.  And  this  Court  was  dancing.  His  sister 
was  enjoying  it  to  the  fullest  extent ;  she  had  not 
seen  him  enter;  the  minuet  must  be  interrupted;  Grumb- 
kow  had  to  point  out  her  brother,  whom  she  did  not  rec- 
ognize ;  Grumbkow  put  her  in  his  arms.  Upon  these 
seven  hundred  couples,  upon  all  this  vast  assemblage  en- 
joying itself,  — as  if  he  were  not  himself,  not  the  Crown 
Prince,  still  a  prisoner  in  semi-liberty,  and  detained  in 
the  routine  of  a  provincial  chamber  and  the  degrada- 
tion of  a  civilian's  dress,  —  Frederick  looked  with 
the  disdainful,  contemptuous,  threatening  glance  of  a 
royal  heir.  The  next  day  when  he  found  himself  in 
presence  of  his  brother-in-law,  he  forgot  the  fine  praise 
he  had  given  this  personage  ;  he  eyed  this  contemptible 
fellow  from  head  to  foot ;  he  did  not  pardon  his  imper- 
tinence in  having  accepted  the  hand  of  the  Crown  Prin- 
cess of  Prussia.  Neither  did  he  pardon  the  sister  for 
having  given  this  hand.  Did  she  speak  of  sacri- 
fice? The  true  sacrifice  would  have  been  to  allow  her- 
self to  be  conducted  to  Memel,  to  endure  everything,  to 
save  the  future.  Of  the  future,  Frederick  thought  in- 
cessantly, to  console  himself  for  the  present.  He  cast 
his  glance  into  it  and  that  look  went  far.  I  am  certain, 
for  my  part,  that  in  his  calculations  he  had  summed  up 
the  utility  of  a  sister,  as  Queen  of  England. 

He  and  Wilhelmina  understood  each  other  no  longer. 
The  time  was  already  long  past,  of  their  youthful 
sports,  when  they  posed  together  under  a  sunshade  held 
by  a  negro,  before  the  Court  painter  ;  when  the  little 
brother  listened  to  the  lessons  of  La  Croze  in  the  apart- 
ments  of  his  big  sister  ;  and  even     that    time,   which 


THE    SECOND    EDUCATION.  353 

seemed  so  recent,  when  these  two  beings  shielded  each 
other  in  their  intimacy,  by  means  of  their  affection,  their 
music,  and  their  malicious  talks,  from  the  miseries  of 
life  ;  they  drew  together  in  the  storm.  Now  in  this 
tete-a-tete  they  were  no  longer  the  same.  "  His  caress- 
es," said  the  Margravine,  "  did  not  come  from  the  heart," 
but  in  Frederick's  heart  there  were  no  longer  any 
caresses.  With  him  also  the  hardships  of  his  fate 
had  produced  callousness.  The  fatality  of  life  was 
weighing  upon  both  of  them.  It  pushed  them  to 
egotism  and  separated  them,  casting  both  brother  and 
sister  to  their  destiny,   one  here,  the  other,  there. 

THE    LAST   DAYS    AT    CUSTRIN. 

Frederick,  during  his  stay  at  Berlin,  had  made  rapid 
progress  in  the  reconciliation  with  his  father.  The 
king  gave  him  permission  to  be  present  November  29th, 
at  a  grand  parade.  An  immense  crowd,  that  assembled 
to  see  him,  showed  great  demonstrations  of  joy,  for  the 
presence  of  the  Crown  Prince  at  a  review  was  the  best 
proof  that  the  king  wished  to  pardon  him.  Three  days 
after,  the  generals,  at  whose  head  was  Prince  Anhalt, 
presented  a  request  for  reinstating  the  prince  in  his  po- 
sition in  the  army.  The  king  promised  them  to  soon 
give  him  a  regiment,  which  was  in  garrison  at  Ruppin, 
and  gave  permission  for  him  to  w^ear  the  blue  coat,  the 
rest  of  his  visit.  Frederick  was  "colonel  elect"  when 
he  set  out  again  for  Ciistrin  on  the  4th  of  December.259 

There  he  put  on  his  civilian's  coat,  and  took  up  his 
work  again  in  the  chamber,  inspecting  domains  and 
corresponding  with  the  king.      It  was  always  the  same 


354  FREDERICK   THE    GREAT. 

tone.  First,  gratitude  to  his  father  for  having  permit- 
ted him  to  wear  the  officer's  coat  for  a  few  days;  an  effu- 
sion of  protestations  of  fidelity,  respect,  love,  submis- 
sion, gratefulness.  As  stubborn  as  he  was  in  resistance, 
so  constant  would  he  be  in  well  doing.  After  our  Lord 
God,  he  knew  no  other  seignior  than  his  most  gracious 
father.  If  there  still  remained  in  him  a  single  false 
vein,  if  he  was  not  completely  devoted  to  his  father, 
may  that  father  do  his  will.260  In  the  next  letter  he  sent 
"a  plan  for  the  commerce  of  Silesia,"  where  he  exposed 
the  ways  of  disturbing  the  commerce  of  this  prov- 
ince, to  the  profit  of  that  of  the  kingdom.  Then  he  re- 
lated a  visit  to  Marienwalde,  where  he  drew  up  a  new 
lease  with  a  net  revenue  (ein  plus)  of  640  thalers.  He 
proved  an  error  of  surveying  and  made  them  recom- 
mence the  operation.  He  noticed  that  the  peasants  ev- 
ery day  furnished  corvee  services  with  one  horse,  which 
was  ruin  to  them.  Would  it  not  be  better  to  ask  this 
service  but  three  times  a  week  and  have  two  horses? 
Every  one  would  gain  by  it,  the  peasants  would  have 
freedom  every  other  day,  and  the  intendant  of  the  do- 
main, who  did  not  have  need  of  daily  service,  would 
like  the  corvee  better  with  two  horses.  Another  day  he 
sent  some  sample  glasses  from  the  glass  works  that  he  had 
established  at  Marienwalde.  He  proposed  a  way  to 
draw  a  larger  profit  from  these  glass  works.261 

Through  all  this,  flow  compliments  and  humble  lan- 
guage of  submission.  Frederick  announces  that  he  will 
go  to  devotion  "  to-day  and  to-morrow."  He  asks  of 
his  "  very  gracious  father  the  permission  to  solicit  from 
him  a  favor;"  which  is  to  be  so  kind  as  to  send  the  new 


THE    SECOND    EDUCATION.  355 

regulations  for  the  infantry.  He  could  only  give  to  his 
father  his  heart  and  his  life,  but  his  father  had  them  al- 
ready; the  only  thing  left  for  him  to  do  was  to  redouble 
his  earnest  prayer  to  God,  so  that  He  would  accord  to 
the  king  the  celestial  benediction,  without  which  we  can 
do  nothing.  Three  times  he  refers  to  the  regulation 
which  he  intended  to  study  "bravely."  He  courts  his 
father  with  delicate  attentions.  As  he  had  been  in- 
formed that  an  animal  had  been  slaughtered  at  Wallup, 
he  sent  for  a  piece  which  would  make  a  fat  roast,  and  ex- 
pedites it  to  his  gracious  father  whom  he  knows  is  fond 
of  it.  As  for  himself,  he  regulates  his  household  ac- 
counts as  well  as  he  can.  The  king  asked  him  if  his 
cook  was  a  "good  manager,"  or  if  he  wasted  the 
wine  and  the  butter.  In  all  submission,  the  prince 
confesses  that  in  the  beginning,  he  managed  his  house- 
hold affairs  badly;  he  went  over  his  accounts  every 
evening  with  the  cook,  but  he  was  cruelly  (cjrausam) 
deceived,  without  knowing  how  or  where.  Then  he 
allowed  so  much  per  day,  and  as  the  cook  agreed  to 
these  terms,  he  never  saw  anything  wrong  after  that; 
but  this  half-way  kind  of  domestic  never  kept  any- 
thing in  order,  and  let  everybody  meddle  with  his 
affairs.  The  essential  thing  after  all  is,  that  the 
prince  economizes  with  his  provincial  allowance  for 
each  month.  Now  in  January,  he  saved  in  his  house- 
hold 20  thalers  and  more.  He  accustoms  himself  to 
drinking  beer;  beer  is  good.  It  is  true  that  he  has 
taken  some  champagne,  but  it  was  through  order  of  his 
physician,  and  not  through  preference;  he  will  not 
drink  any  more.262 


356  FREDERICK   THE    GREAT. 

Of  all  this,  the  king  believed  what  he  wished  to  be- 
lieve; but  he  had  not  been  discontented  with  the 
prince  during  his  visit  to  Berlin.  He  remarked 
with  pleasure  that  his  son's  letters  were  more  pre- 
cise and  penetrated  more  into  detail.  After  the 
proposition  relative  to  the  service  of  corvees,  he  is 
surprised  and  delighted,  sehr  content:  "If  you  have 
found  this  yourself  without  aid,"  wrote  he,  "you  are  al- 
ready far  advanced  in  economy."  And  he  promised 
him  a  horse,  "  a  fine  horse."  Very  soon  he  had  an  ex- 
traordinary fit  of  generosity:  "  I  have  three  horses  for 
thee.  .  .  .  Always  have  God  before  thine  eyes; 
only  be  obedient.  Learn  to  keep  thy  household  ac- 
counts well,  to  manage  thy  money  in  the  right  way,  to 
spend  nothing  until  thou  hast  duly  reflected  whether  it 
is  not  possible  to  buy  the  article  cheaper.  Apply  thy- 
self so  that  I  can  be  prouder  and  prouder  of  thee.  Then 
thy  position  will  improve  through  the  grace  of  God, 
and  I  will  establish  thee  well."  In  post-scriptum,  he 
promised  him  a  service  of  silver.263 

It  seems  then  that  all  was  for  the  best,  and  that  the 
father  and  son  understood  each  other  marvelously  well 
on  all  points.  But,  at  this  time,  when  the  King  of  Prus- 
sia ceases  to  abuse  Frederick  in  his  letters,  and  begins 
again  to  say  thee,  mixing  thou  and  you  together,  as  in  the 
reconciliations  vof  lovers,  he  prepares  a  trial  for  him,  in 
every  way  resembling  the  one  that  Wilhelmina  had  just 
undergone ;  he  wishes  to  marry  him  according  to  his 
own  inclination.  His  demonstrations  of  affection  re- 
semble those  of  the  knight  who  strokes  his  horse's  head 
so  that  the  animal  will  open  his  mouth  for  the  bit. 


THE    SECOND   EDUCATION.  357 

Before  arriving  at  this  new  crisis  in  the  life  of  the 
Crown  Prince,  we  must  pause  a  moment,  in  order  to 
seek  the  point  of  development  to  which  he  has  advanced 
since  his  sojourn  of  one  year  and  a  half  at  Ciistrin. 

His  sister  had  not  recognized  him.  He  was,  in  fact, 
much  changed.  A  portrait,  which  seems  to  have  been 
taken  in  his  eighteenth  year,  before  the  prison  life, 
gives  him  a  long  face,  or  rather,  to  better  describe  it,  an 
attenuated  face,  a  distrustful  look,  half  sad,  uneasy,  an 
indefinable  expression  of  melancholia  and  vice.  At  Ciis- 
trin, he  gained  strength  ;  his  shoulders  broadened  and 
his  face  became  fuller  :  "  You  will  see,"  said  Hille  to 
Grumbkow,  before  the  visit  to  Berlin,  "  Your  Excellen- 
cy, that  he  is  changed.  He  has  a  firm,  easy  carriage.  I 
find  that  he  no  longer  has  that  marquis-like  air  that 
he  had  before."  A  visitor  remarked  that  he  had  "grown, 
and  looked  as  though  he  was  in  good  health  and  spirits." 
This  was  the  effect  he  produced  on  everybody  when  he 
was  at  Berlin.  The  king,  who  was  not  easy  to  please, 
noticed  that  he  still  walked  in  a  careless  fashion,  but  he 
had  to  acknowledge  that  the  boy  held  himself  firmer  on 
his  feet.  A  thing  that  must  have  given  the  king  great 
pleasure  was,  that  Frederick,  in  growing  stouter,  began 
to  resemble  him.  Several  times  Hille  was  surprised  to 
remark  in  the  two  physiognomies  a  family  likeness. 
Naturally  it  was,  when  the  prince  was  in  a  bad  humor 
that  this  similarity  was  more  noticeable.  "It  is  sur- 
prising how  much  he  resembles,  at  certain  times,  Jupi- 
ter armed  with  his  thunder."264 

Several  of  the  prince's  traits  of  character  made  those 
around  him,  who   observed  them,   uneasy;  first  his  im- 


358  FREDERICK   THE    GREAT. 

moderate  taste  "for  the  brilliant,  what  the  French  call 
esprit."  "The  prince,"  said  Hille,  "prides  himself  ex- 
tremely upon  having  this  brilliancy.  The  best  way  of 
gaining  his  friendship  will  be  to  praise  him,  and  not  by 
procuring  recruits  about  ten  feet  high.  He  is  ca- 
pable of  being  deceived  in  his  councillors  later,  on  ac- 
count of  this  failing.  Plain  good  sense  does  not  please 
him,  even  added  to  all  knowledge,  solidity  and 
virtue.  ...  A  sentiment,  seasoned  with  a  bon 
mot*  with  some  point  to  it,  will  call  him  from  the 
bare,  solid  facts.  He  hardly  knows  German.  He  finds 
that  the  men  who  haunt  Potsdam  are  not  filled  with  the 
ideas  that  form  a  man  of  esprit  and  polish,  through 
the  reading  of  French  books.  Whence  comes  his  predi- 
lection for  this  nation  ?  He  believes  the  French  are 
what  they  paint  themselves  in  their  books.  The  ones 
that  he  sees  do  not  undeceive  him,  for  he  thinks  them 
a  little  spoiled  by  contact  with  the  Germans. 
Through  prejudice  in  their  favor  he  finds  merits  in  them 
of  which  they  themselves  are  ignorant."265 

Like  the  French, Frederick  piqued  himself  upon  "a  scru- 
pulous politeness,"  even  in  regard  to  people  who  were  not 
his  "equals,"  but  his  politeness  is  that  of  a  grand  seignior. 
He  knows  his  rank  and  shows  it.  After  a  very  familiar 
conversation,  some  officers  are  presented  to  him;  he  re- 
ceives them  in  a  kingly  manner.  He  suffers  "  at  being 
reduced  to  the  level  of  the  civilians  of  a  little  town,  as 
much  by  the  intercourse  with  them  as  by  his  occupa- 
tion." He  has  pride,  the  haughtiness  of  a  Crown 
Prince  and  a  nobleman,  and  cannot  conceal  his  disgust  for 
the  men  of  the  people.      He  is  delighted  at  the  death  of 


THE    SECOND   EDUCATION.  359 

a  certain  Thiele,  whom  he  detests  as  much  as  he  does 
his  brother,  the  colonel,  because  they  are  not  of  noble 
birth;  they  occupy  too  high  positions.  One  day  Hille, 
questioned  by  him  as  to  what  was  going  on  in  the  cham- 
ber, answered  that  they  were  examining  the  accounts  of 
the  Landrath  of  Selchow.  The  prince  uttered  an  excla- 
mation, finding  it  very  extraordinary  that  a  nobleman 
should  be  obliged  to  give  an  account  to  civilians.  Hille, 
who  was  of  the  people  himself,  found  this  impertinence 
a  little  too  much.  He  replied,  that  •"  effectually,  every- 
thing was  reversed  in  this  world,  and  that  one  could 
better  account  for  it,  when  one  considered  that  princes, 
who  did  not  have  common  sense,  and  only  amused  them- 
selves with  bagatelles,  had  command  nevertheless  of 
very  sensible  people.  That  ended  it.  If  it  made  him 
angry,  I  have  had  the  pleasure  of  telling  him  a  truth  that 
he  will  not  always  hear."  It  is  quite  evident  that  the 
prince  is  a  mocker  ;  he  acknowledges  that  what  pleases 
him  the  most  is  to  observe  others  ridiculed.266 

His  morals  are  very  light.  By  his  proposals  he  scan- 
dalized Schulenburg,  the  President  of  the  Council 
of  War,  whom  he  went  to  visit  in  the  autumn  of  1731. 
The  old  man  had  undertaken  to  read  him  a  lecture.  He 
passed  in  review  all  the  duties  of  this  life.  Upon  filial 
obedience  which,  "  according  to  all  human  and  divine 
law,"  said  Schulenburg,  "  ought  to  be  blind,"  Frederick 
made  many  objections,  giving  thus  a  singular  com- 
mentary upon  his  letters  to  his  father,  so  full  of  pro- 
testations of  absolute  submission.  "I  fear  nothing," 
said  he,  "  so  much  as  to  be  again  near  the  king." 
However,  he  showed  usually  very  good  sentiments    in 


360  FREDERICK   THE    GREAT. 

regard  to  the  king.  Hille,  to  whom  these  sentiments 
had  at  first  appeared  very  doubtful,  ended  by  believ- 
ing them.  "He  is  sure,"  he  wrote,  "that  those  who 
suspect  the  prince  of  not  loving  his  father  and  his 
House  deceive  themselves."  Yes,  it  is  certain  that 
he  loved  his  House.  As  to  his  father,  it  is  probable 
that  he  was  grateful  for  his  leniency  in  his  disobedi- 
ence, and  that  he  may  have  even  begun  to  render  the 
justice  due  to  the  organizer  of  the  Prussian  power; 
but  did  he  love  him  ?  When  he  learned  that  his  sis- 
ter of  Baireuth  was  enceinte,  he  wrote  to  the  king  to 
congratulate  him,  and  expressed  the  hope  "that  his 
very  gracious  father  would  see  the  children  of  his 
children,  in  contentment  and  health."267  I  am  afraid 
that  Frederick,  who  told  many  lies  in  his  life, 
only  repeated  in  this  case,  one  of  his  greatest  false- 
hoods. 

Upon  the  subject  of  marriage,  Frederick's  ideas 
shocked  all  the  Gastrin  colony  and  the  good  Schulen- 
burg.  As  he  had  reasons  to  fear  a  marriage  not  ac- 
cording to  his  tastes,  he  tranquilly  declared:  "If  the 
king  wishes  me  absolutely  to  marry,  I  will  obey  ;  after 
which,  I  will  settle  my  wife  somewhere  and  live  at  my 
ease."  Schulenburg  objected  that,  first  of  all,  such  con- 
duct was  "against  the  law  of  God,  since  He  says  ex- 
pressly that  adulterers  will  not  inherit  the  kingdom  of 
heaven,  and,  secondly,  against  honesty,  since  one  must 
always  hold  to  one's  engagements."  "But,"  replied  the 
prince,  "  I  will  give  my  wife  the  same  liberty."  New 
exclamations  from  Schulenburg.  The  prince  responded 
to  them  "  as  a  young  man."     He   repeated  that  he  was 


THE    SECOND    EDUCATION.  361 

young  and  wished  to  profit  by  life.  "Take  care,"  re- 
plied the  mentor,  "do  not  give  yourself  up  to  women;  the 
king,  notified  of  it,  would  give  you  much  sorrow;  you 
would  ruin  your  health;  without  counting  the  many 
heartaches  which  accompany  this  sort  of  pleasure." — 
"Bah!"  Frederick  began  again,  "when  you  were  young, 
you  were  not  any  better;  and  even  now  who  knows  what 
passed  on  your  last  visit  to  Vienna?" 

Schulenburg  was  always  leading  to  subjects  pertaining 
to  God.  The  prince  did  not  express  himself  on  the 
topic  of  religion.  He  contented  himself  with  saying 
that  God  is  good  and  will  pardon  our  peccadilloes,  but 
he  was  in  reality  becoming  irreligious,  he  who  spoke  to 
his  father  of  his  devotions.  When  Hille  expressed  the  wish 
that  God  would  give  to  the  prince  "  a  little  more  piety," 
he  employed  a  euphemism. 

The  way  of  living  imposed  upon  him,  and  to  which 
he  resigned  himself  in  his  letters  to  his  father,  was  never- 
theless very  distasteful.  He  ate  little  but  was  «  <  fond  of 
side  dishes  and  high-living."  It  is  not  true  that  he  be- 
came accustomed  to  beer,  nor  that  he  drank  champagne 
but  to  obey  the  physician's  orders.  However,  he  drank 
very  little;  the  wine  he  preferred  for  daily  use  was  Bur- 
gundy, with  water  in  it.  He  continued  not  to  like  the 
chase,  however  much  he  may  have  appeared  to  take 
pleasure  in  it.  One  day  as  Hille  asked  him  how  he 
would  arrange  his  life,  if  he  were  master,  he  said:  "  Do 
not  say  anything  about  it,  but  I  assure  you  that  reading  is 
one  of  my  greatest  pleasures.  I  like  music,  but  I  am 
fonder  of  dancing.  I  hate  the  chase,  but  delight  in 
horseback  riding.     If  I  were  master  I  would  do  all  this 


362  FREDERICK   THE    GREAT. 

whenever  I  chose;  but  I  would  employ  a  good  part  of 
my  time  in  my  affairs.  .  .  .  And  then,  I  would 
see  that  my  table  was  properly  and  delicately  served,  al- 
though without  profusion.  I  would  have  good  musi- 
cians, but  only  a  few,  and  never  music  during  repasts, 
for  it  sets  me  to  dreaming  and  keeps  me  from  eating.  I 
would  dine  alone  and  in  public,  but  I  would  invite  my 
friends  to  sup  with  me  and  treat  them  well."  For  his 
dress,  he  would  always  wear  a  uniform,  "  but  with  very 
magnificent  surtouts."  In  telling  these  projects  of  the 
day  when  he  would  be  master,  he  "  entered  into  a  kind 
of  ecstasy."268 

While  awaiting  the  hour,  Frederick  continued  to 
carry  on  his  mock  economy,  and  his  business  as  inspector 
of  domains.  When  he  set  out  for  Berlin  in  the  month 
of  October,  1731,  he  sent  to  Madame  von  Wreech  a 
proposed  plan  that  he  "  really  made  himself"  of 
his  entrance  into  the  city.  <  *  I  will  be  preceded  by  a 
drove  of  pigs  that  will  be  made  to  squeal  loud. 
After  them  will  come  a  troop  of  sheep  and  lambs. 
These  will  be  followed  by  oxen  from  Podolia,  which 
will  immediately  precede  me.  .  .  Mounted  upon 
a  great  ass,  whose  harness  will  be  as  simple  as  pos- 
sible, instead  of  pistols,  I  will  have  two  sacks  filled  with 
different  kinds  of  seed  ;  instead  of  a  saddle 

and  blanket,  I  will  have  a  sack  of  flour,  upon  which  my 
noble  form  will  be  seated,  holding  instead  of  a  whip,  a 
switch  in  my  hand,  having  in  place  of  a  cap,  a  straw 
hat  on  my  head.  .  .  .  Around  me  will  be  peasants 
armed  with  scythes  ;  behind,  will  follow  the  noblemen  ; 
upon    a    car  heaped  with  manure,  the  heroic  figure    of 


THE    SECOND   EDUCATION.  363 

Natzmer;  on  the  top  of  a  hay  wagon,  the  frightful  face 
of  the  terrible  Rohwedel.  The  procession  will  end 
with  Herr  von  Wolden,  who  will  have  the  kindness  to 
pass  away  his  time  upon  the  top  of  a  load  of  wheat  and 
barley."269 

Frederick  can  never  be  trusted  when  he  rails  in  this 
manner.  He  went  beyond  and  did  worse  than  the  French 
fashion.  It  is  in  vain  for  him  to  deny  it;  he  knew 
economy.  He  had  studied  the  soil,  cultivation,  animals 
and  peasants.  He  knew  how  a  farmer  "  converted  ev- 
erything into  money,"  and  what  it  cost  a  laborer,  as  his 
father  said,  to  save  a  thaler.  He  had  said  to  Hille, 
that,  when  he  should  be  occupied  in  his  own  affairs,  he 
would  not  attend  personally  to  the  State:  "I  will 
confide  this  part  to  you  and  others,"  but  he  was  as  capa- 
ble of  making  an  examination  of  State  affairs  as  his 
father.  One  sees  already  that  he  will  not  be  prodigal. 
Hille  remarks,  and  this  is  of  importance,  "for  that 
which  pertains  to  generosity,  he  has  need  of  habitual 
practice."  It  was  not  in  vain  that  his  father  forced  him 
to  learn  the  price  of  butter;  Frederick  will  never  sell  it 
under  price. 

The  things  which  interested  him  the  most  in  economy 
were  the  State  affairs,  intermingled  with  politics.  His 
"plan  for  the  commerce  of  Silesia"  must  have  been 
made  with  the  collaboration  of  Hille,  who  laid  the 
matter  before  him,  but  he  was  extremely  interested 
in  it.  "I  am  at  present  up  to  my  ears  in  my  com- 
merce of  Silesia,"  wrote  he  to  Grumbkow.  The  work 
occupied  him  to  such  an  extent  that,  when  they  asked 
him  if  he  desired  mustard  with  his  beef,  he  was  about 


364  FREDERICK   THE    GREAT. 

to  reply:  "Let  us  see  the  new  list  of  customs." 
"When  he  is  occupied  with  a  thing,"  he  added,  "he  is 
over  head  and  ears  in  it. "  27°  Now  this  is  the  true  way 
to  do  everything.  In  order  to  compose  a  memorandum, 
he  found,  on  looking  at  the  map,  that  his  father  pos- 
sessed "nearly  the  whole  coast  of  the  Baltic  from 
Memel  to  the  Peene,"271  and  that  Silesia,  whence 
came  all  the  commercial  trouble  of  the  kingdom. 
He  certainly  made  on  the  subject  of  this  province, 
and  that  of  Poland,  which  interrupted,  by  the  mouth 
of  the  Vistula,  the  Prussian  line,  dangerous  reflec- 
tions for  the  Austrian  and  Polish  neighbors. 

He  could  not  keep  from  talking,  what  is  rightly  called 
politics.  One  evening  he  had  a  conversation  with  Natzmer 
which  was  prolonged  far  into  the  night,  and  which 
never  came  to  an  end,  sleep  overtaking  the  two  young 
men  while  they  were  "selling  their  merchandise."  The 
prince  wished  to  conclude  it  and  give  a  resume  of  his 
"  system  "  in  a  letter  to  Natzmer. 

Here  it  is  in  a  few  words;  for  the  present,  peace;  for  a 
King  of  Prussia,  whose  countries  traverse  Europe  di- 
agonally, "and  have  not  a  great  enough  connection,  all 
enclosed  as  they  are  by  neighbors,  can  be  attacked  from 
more  than  one  side." 

In  order  to  protect  himself  from  all  his  neighbors,  he 
would  have  to  place  the  whole  army  on  the  defensive, 
and  there  would  be  nothing  left  for  the  oifensive.  But 
it  must  not  remain  in  this  state.  This  would  be  "  a 
very  bad  policy  and  come  from  a  person  devoid  of  all 
invention  and  imagination.  When  one  does  not  go  for- 
ward, one  goes  backward."  The  question  is,  to  procure 
more  and  more  the  aggrandizement  of  the  House. 


THE    SECOND    EDUCATION.  365 

"  The  most  important  thing  is  '  to  draw  the  Prussian 
countries  more  together,  to  connect  the  severed  portions, 
which  belong  naturally  to  the  portions  we  possess,  such 
as  Polish  Prussia.'  .  .  .  These  countries  being  ac- 
quired, not  only  will  it  make  an  entirely  free  passage 
from  Pomerania  to  the  kingdom  of  Prussia,  but  the 
reins  can  be  drawn  on  the  Poles,  and  it  will  place  us  in 
a  state  to  dictate  laws  to  them."  But,  "  let  us  go  far- 
ther. Here  is  Citerior-Pomerania.  It  is  only  sepa- 
rated from  us  by  the  Peene,  and  would  make  a  very 
pretty  effect  combined  with  our  territories.  One  would 
gain  more  revenue,  but  the  word  revenue  belongs  to 
financiers  and  commissioners."  The  true  profit  in  the 
acquisition  would  be  to  place  the  House  above  all  insults 
which  might  come  from  the  Swedes,  to  give  more  lib- 
erty to  the  main  body  of  the  army,  which  would  other- 
wise have  to  defend  the  Peene,  to  enlarge  the  country 
more,  and  to  open  in  this  way,  "  the  road  to  a  conquest, 
which,  you  might  say,  offers  itself  to  us;  that  is,  the 
country  of  Mecklenburg."  Advancing  from  country  to 
country,  from  conquest  to  conquest  ....  like 
Alexander  ....  he  moves  on  toward  the  Rhine. 
To  the  Prussian  countries  of  Cleves  and  Mark,  he  wishes 
to  add  so  as  they  may  not  be  so  ' '  lonely  and  compan- 
ionless,"  Berg  and  Juliers.  Once  united,  these  prov- 
inces can  sustain  a  garrison  of  30,000  men.  They  will 
then  be  in  a  state  of  defense,  instead  of  which,  as  it 
stands,  the  single  country  of  Cleves,  is  incapable  of  de- 
fending itself,  and  belongs  to  the  king  only  as  long  as 
the  French  have  the  discretion  to  let  him  keep  it.  Over 
these  territories,  Brandenburg  has  some  rights,    but  the 


366  FREDERICK   THE    GREAT. 

prince  does  not  plead  them;  < '  he  reasons  only  in  pure 
politics,"  and  can  not  stop  before  each  word  to  make  a 
"  digression."  He  simply  wishes  to  prove  that  there  is 
"political  necessity "  to  acquire  these  provinces.  He 
hoped  that  all  he  said  would  be  found  reasonable, 
"for  when  things  are  in  the  state  that  I  have  just  laid  be- 
fore you,  the  King  of  Prussia  will  cut  a  fine  figure  with 
the  great  of  the  earth,  and  play  one  of  the  grand  roles.  .  .  . 
I  wish  this  House  of  Prussia,  to  rise  up  entirely  out  of 
the  dust  in  which  she  is  now  lying  dormant.272  .  .  ." 
If  King  Frederick  William  had  read  this  manifesto, 
he  would  have  been  reassured  about  Prussia's  future.  It 
was  this  future  entire  that  the  Crown  Prince  foresaw 
and  examined.  His  theory  of  the  "  political  necessity" 
of  certain  conquests,  with  posterior  allegation  and  sub- 
sidiary "  reasons  of  right,"  he  first,  and  others  follow- 
ing, applied.  He  speaks  to  perfection  in  that  very 
unique  Prussian  manner,  where  bitter  irony,  which 
cuts,  alternates  with  humanitarian  and  religious  phrase- 
ology, and  the  indelicacy  of  power  with  the  mysticism  of 
a  priestly  devotion;  for  this  philosopher,  speaks  like  a 
preacher.  Upon  the  same  leaf  of  paper,  the  space  of  a 
few  lines  from  the  proposition  of  the  conquest  of 
Swedish  Pomerania  to  "enlarge"  Prussian  Pomerania, 
and  that  of  Juliers  and  Berg,  to  keep  company  with  Cleves 
and  Mark,  which  are  "so  lonely,"  he  protests  that  his 
House  "has  no  other  enemy  to  fear  but  celestial  anger." 
If  he  wishes  Prussia  "to  rise  from  the  dust,"  it  is  "  to 
spread  the  Protestant  religion,  to  be  the  shelter  for  the 
afflicted,  the  support  of  widows  and  orphans,  the  suste- 
nance of  the  poor  and  the  judge  of  the  unjust."     He 


THE    SECOND    EDUCATION.  367 

would  rather  see  her  abused,  "if  injustice,  lack  of  relig- 
ion, favoritism  or  vice  should  prevail  over  virtue  from 
which  may  God  preserve  her  always.      .      .      ." 

One  can  almost  imagine  this  to  be  a  Bismarck  or  a 
William  I.  who  speaks. 

Frederick  was  eighteen  years  old  when  he  wrote  this 
letter,  which  throws  a  strong  light  upon  his  character. 
His  genius  has  not  yet  matured.  Contrasts  and  contradic- 
tions, which  astonish  and  worry  those  who  observe  them, 
are  found  in  him.  Some  judge  him  wrongfully.  Schu- 
lenburg,  imagines  "  that  passions  rule  him  entirely  and 
pleasure  holds  a  larger  place  in  his  heart  than  anything 
else;"  Schulenburg  only  saw  him  for  a  short  time;  the 
prince  was  mocking  him.  Wolden  was  a  great  admirer 
of  his  "subordinate."  He  found  in  him  "all  the  requi- 
site qualities  of  a  grand  seignior."  He  saw  all  the  profit 
the  prince  had  gained  by  his  sojourn  at  Custrin:  "In 
addition  to  adversity,  which  has  formed  his  heart  and 
mind,  the  prince  begins  to  have  a  just  idea  of  the  good 
of  many  things  which  he  never  knew  before."  And,  "he 
is  capable  of  everything,  with  the  penetration  that  he 
has,"  but  he  is  not  yet  matured,  and  Wolden  twice  ut- 
ters the  wish  "that  God  may  accord  the  king  some 
years  more  of  life.  Otherwise  we  would  see  very  sad 
calamities  befall  the  poor  country,  by  a  sudden  change." 
Hille  knew  better  than  anyone  the  value  of  his  pupil. 
He  divined  that  Frederick  would  be  one  of  the  greatest 
princes  of  the  House  of  Brandenburg,  but  he  found,  like 
Wolden,  that  he  lacked  something.  They  had  reason  to 
have  some  uneasiness:  the  true  Frederick  was  not  yet 
disentangled  from  the  contradictions  of  his  own  nature, 


368  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

and  the  opposing  influences  which  were  at  work  within 
him.  They  also  had  reason  to  hope;  they  saw  the 
young  eagle  of  Prussia  leaving  the  egg.  They  were 
not  the  only  ones  who  saw  him.  Prince  Eugene,  to 
whom  the  letter  to  Natzmer  had  been  communicated, 
observed  that  "the  ideas  of  this  young  lord  went  far," 
and  that  he  would  one  day  become  "very  redoubtable  to 
his  neighbors."  The  old  servitor  of  Hapsburg  had  a 
presentiment  of  the  young  eagle's  talon. 


CHAPTER.    VI. 

THE    MARRIAGE    OF    FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. THE     INTEN- 
TIONS   OF    AUSTRIA. 

We  have  made  several  allusions,  in  the  preceding 
pages,  to  the  marriage  of  the  Crown  Prince.  We 
must  now  take  up  again  the  history  of  this  new  trial 
imposed  on  Frederick  by  his  father.  This  chapter  of 
Frederick's  youth  completes  our  knowledge  of  him,  and 
points  out  to  us  curious  traits  of  political  morals;  great 
forces  put  into  action  in  order  to  obtain  poor,  contemp- 
tible, low  results;  great  personages  solemnly  committing 
foolish  acts, — for  the  history  of  Frederick's  marriage  is 
that  of  an  attempt  made  by  Austria  to  take  posses- 
sion of  the  Crown  Prince  of  Prussia,  and  make  him 
her  dependent. 

The  policy  of  the  Court  of  Vienna  was  difficult,  at 
this  stage  of  the  eighteenth  century.  The  Emperor 
Charles  VI.  seemed  to  be  the  most  powerful  monarch  of 
Christendom.  The  regulation  of  the  Spanish  succes- 
sion and  the  Peace  of  Passarowitz  had  added  to  the  old 
hereditary  provinces  and  to  the  kingdoms  of  Hungary 
and  Bohemia,  on  one  side,  Milan,  Naples,  and  Sardinia 
soon  exchanged  for  Sicily;  on  the  other  side,  Banat, 
North  Servia  with  Belgrade,  and  Little  Wallachia  up  to 
the  Aluta.  The  imperial  dignity  was  ornamented,  be- 
sides, with  the  brilliancy  which  it  had  acquired  by  pre- 


370  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

serving  this  mosaic  of  kingdoms  and  principalities;  it 
gave  the  Emperor  some  authority  over  the  Germanic 
corps.  But  the  House  of  Austria  had  many  enemies: 
first,  her  two  traditional  adversaries,  France  and  Turkey, 
then  the  Bourbons  of  Spain,  who  coveted  the  two  Sici- 
lies. Against  a  coalition  always  possible  of  these  three 
powers,  Austria  could  not  depend  upon  the  support  of 
England  and  Holland;  these  countries  were  hostile  to 
her  not  only  through  religious  antipathies,  which  were 
not  yet  extinct,  but  since  Austria  possessed  the  Belgian 
provinces  and  claimed  her  part  of  the  ocean  commerce, 
the  two  maritime  powers  united  to  refuse  it  to  her.  The 
kingdom  of  the  Hapsburgs,  which, extended  from  Ostend 
to  Belgrade  and  from  Breslau  to  Palermo,  was  in  a  dan- 
gerous position. 

It  was  incoherent  both  in  its  ensemble  and  in  its  divis- 
ions. The  kingdom  of  Hungary,  for  example,  was  not 
a  single  country.  Her  annexes,  Croatia,  Slavonia,  and 
Transylvania,  were  nothing  less  than  Hungarian.  The 
old  hereditary  countries  were  of  a  mixed  race.  Even  in  the 
groups  of  homogeneous  races,  there  were  some  differ- 
ences, between  the  Tyrol  and  Breisgau,  between  Naples 
and  Milan.  It  is  true  that  the  nationalities  had  not  yet 
been  awakened.  They  lived  an  obscure  life,  very  differ- 
ent the  one  from  the  other,  by  race  and  tongue,  geograph- 
ical position,  traditions,  sentiments  and  interests;  but 
provided  they  were  not  disturbed  in  their  local  customs, 
they  did  not  think  of  revolting.  Every  one  of  these 
fragments  recognized  the  sovereignty  of  the  Hapsburgs. 

The  Emperor  conformed  to  the  exigencies  of  his  condi- 
tion.    He  did  not  pretend  to  submit  to  the  same  regime 


THE    MARRIAGE    OF    FREDERICK.  371 

all  these  diverse  beings.  He  was  not  one  sovereign  ;  be 
was  a  collection  of  sovereigns,  a  congress  in  one  person, 
but  this  multiplicity  rendered  activity  difficult;  there  was 
in  the  eighteenth  century  an  Hapsburgian  inertia.  Aus- 
tria held  together  only  on  condition  that  she  made  as 
few  moves  as  possible.  Now  a  great  crisis  menaced  her. 
Charles  VI.  lost  in  December,  1716,  the  son  who  was 
born  to  him  in  the  month  of  April  of  the  same  year,  after 
eight  years  of  married  life.  Since  then,  he  had  had  two 
daughters  given  him,  Maria  Theresa,  in  1717,  and  Maria 
Anne  in  1718.  No  prayer  or  pilgrimage,  had  obtained 
from  heaven  the  gift  of  an  heir.  Thenceforward,  the 
disunion  of  the  empire  of  the  Hapsburgs  was  foreseen  and 
expected;  the  Austrian  succession  entered  into  the  calcu- 
lations of  politics,  as  did  the  succession  of  Spain  in  the 
preceding  century.  The  whole  policy  of  Charles  VI. 
had  for  its  object  the  procuration  integrally  to  Maria 
Theresa,  of  the  paternal  inheritance.  The  Pragmatic 
JSajK^wn^which  regulated  this  great  affair,  was  preSeTITSd 
0113II  occasions,  to  the  powers  of  Kujope.  It  was  cov- 
ered with  signatures,  which  were  just  so  many  falsehoods. 
Even  in  this  cold  Europe  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
which  did  not  know  the  passions  of  the  souls  of  nations, 
everybody  felt  that  the  Hapsburg  chaos  had  no  cause  for 
existing,  and  that  for  Austria,  political  expression  was 
not  necessary. 

The  principal  care  of  the  ministers  of  state  of  Vienna 
ought  to  be  to  assure  themselves  against  all  German 
enemies,  and  even  to  find  allies  in  Germany,  by  paying 
them  the  price  necessary.  The  designed  ally  was  the  King 
of  Prussia. 


372  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

Now  as  Austria  had  but  a  hundred  and  some  odd 
thousand  men  to  defend  Belgrade  against  the  Turk,  Milan 
against  the  King  of  Sardinia,  Naples  against  the  King 
of  Spain,  Brussels  against  the  King  of  France,  the 
King  of  Prussia  could  fall  any  day  upon  Silesia  with  a 
large  army,  since  it  was  open  on  all  sides  and  badly  pro- 
tected. The  ally  that  must  be  paid  well,  was  this  king. 
Austria  knew  what  she  had  to  dread  from  Prussia, 
but  her  pride  of  position  as  an  old  power,  and  an  in- 
capacity—  which  we  find  even  to-day  —  of  making  at 
the  right  moment  the  sacrifices  necessary,  restrained 
her.  She  thought  that  it  would  be  sufficient  to  court 
the  King  of  Prussia  with  words  upheld  with  vague 
promises,  to  surround  him,  to  have  him  watched,  to 
provoke  and  pay  the  treachery  of  his  ministers,  am- 
bassadors, fools  and  domestics.  To  hold  this  maniac 
in  check,  all  that  was  necessary,  was  the  presence  of 
Seckendorff  at  the  "Tobacco  College,"  a  few  thousand 
florins  distributed  each  year,  and  about  twenty  giant 
recruits  sent  at  the  opportune  moment. 

The  success  of  this  policy  was  qualified  to  deceive 
the  court  of  Vienna.  The  tumultuous  King  of  Prus- 
sia was  continually  pulling,  but  never  breaking,  the 
cord  that  Vienna  held  out  to  him,  relaxing  or  tight- 
ening his  grasp,  whenever  it  suited  him.  Austria 
knew,  as  well  as  and  better  perhaps  than  the  rest  of 
Europe,  the  changeableness  of  Frederick  William's  mind. 
She  was,  on  the  whole,  contented  with  him  and,  in  all 
sincerity,  wished  him  a  long  life. 

Unfortunately,  the  King  of  Prussia  compromised  his 
health  by  his   way   of   living.      Seckendorff   and  Prince 


THE    MARRIAGE    OF    FREDERICK.  373 

Eugene,  the  one  near,  the  other  at  a  distance,  watched 
him  with  solicitude.  The  greatest  pleasure  of  this 
prince  was  to  know  that  the  king  was  well:  "  I  am  de- 
lighted," wrote  he  to  Seckendorff,  "  that  you  have  found 
the  king  in  such  good  health.  1  hope  that  it  will  last; 
I  earnestly  wish  it  with  my  whole  heart.  If  he  would 
only  habituate  himself  little  by  little  to  temperance,  ab- 
stain from  smoking  and  drinking  so  much  !  " 273  Secken- 
dorff made  a  respectful  representation  of  it,  on  behalf 
of  both  Prince  Eugene  and  himself:  "  You  smoke  too 
much,  Sire  !  "  And  the  king  would  smoke  several  pipes 
less,  to  please  Prince  Eugene.  But  he  would  fall  again 
into  his  passions;  hardly  a  year  passed  that  he  did  not 
risk  his  life.  And  then,  he  seemed  to  approach  so  near 
to  madness  that  he  might  any  moment  reach  it ;  there 
was  no  dependence  to  be  placed  in  him;  in  order  to  be 
assured  of  the  future,  they  must  assure  themselves  of 
the  Crown  Prince. 

It  was  a  first  step  towards  it  to  have  broken  the  mar- 
riage alliance  with  England.  They  must  now  render  the 
rupture  permanent  by  marrying  the  prince,  and  choosing 
the  future  Queen  of  Prussia  from  the  dependents  of  Aus- 
tria. Hardly  had  Frederick  left  his  prison  when  Prince 
Eugene  engaged  Seckendorff  to  prepare  the  way  for 
Frederick's  marriage  with  a  niece  of  the  Empress,  the 
Princess  Elizabeth  of  Brunswick-Bevern.  Seckendorff, 
as  early  as  the  month  of  December,  1730,274  required  the 
aid  of  Grumbkow,  and  the  prince,  some  days  later,  was 
questioned  upon  his  intentions  in  regard  to  marriage. 
His  first  declarations  were  not  encouraging.  He  said  to 
Hille  that  he  would  not  marry  young;  a  spying  wife 
who,  each  year,  would  become  "older  and  uglier,"  would 


374  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

soon  be  intolerable  to  him.  He  would  marry  then  at 
forty,  a  princess  of  fifteen,  who  would  be  in  the  bloom 
of  beauty.275  Several  months  later,  in  April,  1731,  a 
queer  idea  came  to  Frederick. 

At  midnight,  he  sent  for  Hille,  who  arose  and  went 
to  him,  and  under  his  dictation,  wrote  out  a  scheme,  des- 
tined for  Grumbkow.  The  prince  began  by  complain- 
ing of  the  useless  efforts  that  he  had  made  to  regain  the 
king's  favor.  As  he  feared  that  his  father  would  sus- 
pect him  of  having  secret  views  in  regard  to  his  mar- 
riage, he  declared  that,  if  he  had  had  any,  he  there  re- 
nounced them  willingly.  He  was  ready  to  abide  by  the 
king's  intentions,  if  his  majesty  had  any,  as  he  had 
heard,  towards  the  House  of  Austria.  He  would  volun- 
tarily marry  the  Arch-Duchess  Maria  Theresa,  provided 
they  did  not  require  him  to  change  his  religion,  "  which 
he  protested  before  God  that  he  would  never  desire  to 
do,  for  no  human  consideration  of  whatever  nature  and 
importance  it  might  be."  Foreseeing  that  Europe  would 
be  alarmed  at  seeing  the  hereditary  States  of  Austria  and 
the  House  of  Prussia  united,  he  proposed  to  renounce 
the  latter,  in  favor  of  his  brother  William,  provided 
they  would  assign  him  something  wherewith  to  live  be- 
fitting his  rank  during  the  life  of  the  Emperor. 

On  reading  this  strange  message,  Grumbkow  was 
struck  with  amazement  (fell  from  the  clouds).  He  im- 
mediately sent  it  back  to  Ciistrin,  begging  Hille  to  burn 
it  as  soon  as  possible.  The  king,  said  he,  will  be  in  a 
fine  state  of  anger,  if  he  has  an  inkling  of  this  fancy. 
His  majesty  not  only  has  never  thought  of  such  a  mar- 
riage, but  he  would  have  any  one  hung  that  would  sug- 
gest the  idea  to  him.     The  honest  Grumbkow,   before 


THE    MARRIAGE    OF    FREDERICK.  375 

sending  this  document  back,  of  which  he  so  strongly 
feared  the  revelation,  made  a  copy  that  he  communicated 
to  Seckendorff.  He  in  his  turn  transmitted  it  to  Prince 
Eugene.  The  two  Austrians  almost  split  their  heads 
trying  to  find  out  the  explanation  of  this  mystery. 
These  marriage  reports  having  been  circulated  by  news 
mongers,  they  thought  that  the  prince  wished  to  know 
exactly  how  he  stood,  and  that  he  had  thus  given  a  new 
proof  of  his  "falsity."  It  is  more  than  likely,  however, 
that  Frederick  had  thought  of  this  means  for  discovering 
the  king's  projects.  At  the  same  time,  he  seized  the  op- 
portunity of  showing  his  docility,  and  affirming  his  defi- 
nite renunciation  of  "  secret  and  disagreeable  views," 
evidently  with  the  hope  of  moving  the  king  at  last,  and 
leaving  the  "drudgery"  a  little  sooner. 

The  effect  of  this  fancy  proved  to  be  entirely  contrary 
to  what  he  expected.  Prince  Eugene  had  found  the 
project  astounding,  wunderlich.  He  compared  it  to  the 
letter  written  to  Natzmer,  upon  the  politics  of  Prussia, 
and  concluded  from  these  signs  that,  if  the  prince  was 
not  yet  very  reflective,  he  was  not  lacking  "either  in 
reason  or  vivacity."  He  returned  then  to  the  idea  of 
the  marriage  that  he  had  had  in  mind,  possessed  with 
the  thought  that  the  only  way  of  correcting  the  false 
"principles"  of  Frederick  was  to  make  him  accept  the 
Princess  of  Bevern:  "There  was  no  hope  outside  of  the 
Bevern  marriage."  276 

THE    DECLARATION    OF    THE    KING. 

No  sooner  said  than  done.  Eight  days  after  Prince 
Eugene  had  sent  his  orders  to  Seckendorff,  the  King  of 
Prussia  wrote  Wolden  to  prepare  Frederick  for  marriage. 


376  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

It  was  one  of  those  strange  letters,  wherein  was  mingled 
a  medley  of  household  accounts,  the  question  of  wood 
for  fuel,  reproaches  for  his  son's  treason,  raillery  at  his 
mannerisms,  his  ways  of  a  petit-maitre,  and  the  invoca- 
tion of  the  grace  of  God.  "  Besides,"  said  he  at  the 
close,  and  as  if  in post-scriptum,  "my  son  ,   if 

I  deem  it  proper,  must  marry  and  not  with  a  princess  of 
the  House  of  England;  I  will  give  him  his  choice  among 
a  few.  You  can  tell  him  this, — and  I  am  your  very  af- 
fectionate king." 

"Good  God!"  cried  Hille,  "how  unlucky  will  it  be, 
when  they  attempt  to  force  the  inclination  of  the  prince, 
who  is  not  so  easily  disposed  to  making  a  choice  without 
having  seen  and  bagged  his  game!"  However,  the  prince 
felt  that  resistance  would  be  impossible.  Wolden  as- 
serted that  he  had  accepted  the  thing  "with  entire  resig- 
nation to  Providence  and  blind  submission  to  the  order  of 
his  majesty."  The  good  Marshal  wished  to  make  himself 
believe  that,  tired  of  his  mode  of  life,  and  ardently  de- 
siring an  end  to  his  domestic  troubles,  the  young  man 
would  just  adapt  himself  to  circumstances,  when  it  was 
a  question  of  marrying,  provided  that  they  gave  him  a 
little  liberty,  and  that  the  wife  who  was  destined  for 
him  would  be  pleasing,  and  that  he  would  have  some- 
thing with  which  to  maintain  his  little  Court.  But  will 
these  conditions  be  granted  ?  Wolden  is  melancholy. 
"All  this  is  not  very  rejoicing,"  he  said.  Like  Hille,  he 
felt  that  fresh  storms  were  brewing.277 

The  king  took  note  of  the  submission  of  his  son:  "Let 
him  continue,"  wrote  he,  "it  will  bring  him  fine  profit." 
As  he  had  promised  the  prince  to  allow  him  to  choose 


THE    MARRIAGE    OF    FREDERICK.  377 

from  among  a  few  parties,  he  commissioned  Grumbkow, 
the  middle  of  June,  1731,  to  take  to  Custrin  a  list  of 
princesses.  There  were  but  three  names:  Saxe- 
Gotha,  Eisenach,  Bevern.  Grumbkow,  who  knew 
the  play,  presented  the  forced  card.  Frederick  made 
a  pretense  of  taking  it;  he  decided  for  Bevern;  but 
on  two  conditions:  first,  that  the  princess  was  ' 'neither 
stupid  nor  disgusting;"  second,  that  the  king  would 
give  him  enough  for  a  maintenance.  Besides,  he  af- 
fected at  this  moment  "to  be  above  all  worldly  affairs.  It 
was  then  that  he  was  boasting  to  Grumbkow  of  having  be- 
come a  great  poet.  He  added  that  he  "would  be  neither 
a  general  nor  warrior,  not  wishing  to  mingle  himself 
in  any  of  the  details  of  his  affairs:  to  render  his  peo- 
ple happy,  he  would  choose  good  ministers  and 
allow  them  to  do  it."  Seckendorff  delivered  to  Prince 
Eugene  this  happy  prognostic.278 

Frederick  always  hoped  that  some  incident  would 
arise  to  disarrange  the  king's  projects.  He  was  not 
at  all  resigned.  The  marriage  topic  was  often  renewed 
in  his  conversations  at  Custrin.  In  advance,  he  began 
to  hate  the  Princess  of  Bevern.  "She  is  silly  and 
ugly,"  said  he  to  Hille.  "But,  even  supposing  this 
is  true,  could  you  not  love  her  and  live  with  her?" 
—  "Assuredly  not,  I  will  settle  her  somewhere  as  soon 
as  I  am  master.  I  ought  to  be  pardoned  for  getting 
out  of  the  affair  as  well  as  I  can."  It  is  the  same 
speech  that  he  repeated  some  days  after  to  Schulen- 
burg,  adding  to  it  a  wicked  word.  As  Schulenburg 
wished  to  make  him  fear  that  the  king  might  take 
the  part  of   his    abandoned    daughter-in-law:      "  I  will 


378  FREDERICK   THE    GREAT. 

arrange  everything  in  such  good  order,  that  she  will 
not  dare  to  complain."279 

However,  Frederick,  like  his  sister  Wilhelmina,  saw 
day  succeeding  day,  and  nothing  come  to  pass  which 
could  give  him  the  least  hope.  After  he  had  the  sorrow 
of  being  present  at  the  marriage  of  his  sister,  he  felt  that 
his  time  was  now  approaching.  He  fought  against  it. 
No  doubt,  one  of  his  reasons  for  his  repugnance  to  the 
Princess  of  Bevern  was,  that  her  House  was  not  illustri- 
ous enough;  she  was,  in  his  eyes,  a  beggar,  like  Baireuth. 
He  would  much  prefer  not  marrying  at  all,  said  he  to 
Grumbkow;  but  if  they  were  absolutely  determined  to 
marry  him,  why  could  he  not  espouse,  instead  of  a  niece, 
one  of  the  daughters  of  the  Empress?  He  would  be  con- 
tented with  the  second;  provided  she  had  4<a  dot  of  some 
duchies."  Another  time,  he  talked  of  marrying  Anne  of 
Mecklenburg,  grand-daughter  of  Ivan,  on  condition  that 
she  would  renounce  the  throne  of  Russia,  and  bring  him 
a  dot  of  two  or  three  million  of  roubles.  But  all  these 
were  expedients,  and  ways  of  talking  for  the  sake  of 
talking.  At  the  end  of  a  letter  in  which  he  treats  of  a 
marriage  with  a  daughter  of  the  Empress,  he  puts  a 
jwst-scrijitum :  "No,  I  will  never  take  a  wife,  even 
were  it  from  the  hands  of  Madam,  the  Princess  of  Bai- 
reuth." He  became  more  and  more  exasperated  against 
the  Bevern  princess,  saying  that  he  knew  very  well  that 
she  was  ugly,  heavy  as  a  log,  and  half  dumb.  He  re- 
peated that,  if  they  forced  him  to  marry  her,  he  would 
banish  her  as  soon  as  he  was  master.280 

At  this  time,  Prince  Eugene,  seeing  that  the  sojourn 
at  Custrin  was  soon  coming  to  an  end,  resolved  to  make 


THE    MARRIAGE    OF    FREDERICK.  379 

fast  the  bonds  of  the  intrigue  with  which  he  had  enveloped 
the  King  of  Prussia  and  his  son.  The  latter  part  of  Janu- 
ary, 1732,  he  sent  instructions  to  Seckendorff,  which  re- 
sembled the  plan  of  a  campaign.  Seckendorff  must  move 
secretly,  hide  from  all  others  except  Grumbkow  the  part 
that  he  took  in  the  work  of  this  marriage,  to  have  the 
appearance  of  not  interfering  at  all,  to  give  the  queen  no 
excuse  for  denouncing  the  Emperor  to  the  Court  of 
England,  with  whom  it  would  be  necessary  to  deal  cau- 
tiously; for  it  had  not  yet  renounced  the  marriage  of 
Frederick  with  an  English  princess.  However,  things 
must  be  quickly  done;  arrange  "as  soon  as  possible," 
the  first  interview  between  the  Crown  Prince  and  the 
Princess  of  Bevern,  and  then  "without  the  loss  of  a 
moment's  time,  proceed  to  the  marriage."  It  was  of  the 
highest  importance  to  gain  the  confidence  of  the  prince, 
but  it  must  be  done  without  the  king's  knowledge,  who 
might  take  offense  at  this  step.  For  this,  he  had  better 
concert  with  Grumbkow.  He  was  not  to  lose  an  oppor- 
tunity of  saying  and  repeating  to  the  prince  that  his 
imperial  majesty  had  for  him  and  for  his  House  a  par- 
ticular predilection.  But  no  doubt  words  alone  would 
not  be  sufficient:  the  best  way  of  being  agreeable  to  the 
prince  would  be  to  aid  him,  in  his  need  of  money.  His 
imperial  majesty  put  then  at  the  disposition  of  Secken- 
dorff a  sum  of  from  2,000  to  2,500  ducats,  that  he  must 
extend  to  the  prince,  at  several  different  times,  with 
the  greatest  prudence,  with  "the  strictest  secrecy;" 
for  no  one  must  be  in  his  confidence,  except  the 
prince  and  Grumbkow.281 

At  the  receipt  of  these  orders    from    Field-Marshal 


380  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

Prince  Eugene,  General  Seckendorff,  who  had  skillfully 
led  the  first  operations  of  the  siege,  made  ready  for  the 
assault. 

It  was  precisely  at  this  date,  in  the  beginning  of  the 
year  1732,  that  the  letters  of  the  king  to  his  son  became 
more  amiable;  he  gave  him  a  horse,  and  announced  he 
was  going  to  send  him  a  service  of  silver,  knives,  forks, 
spoons,  dishes,  candelabrums,  '  <  enough  to  laden  an 
ass."282  As  the  prince  was  sick,  his  father  was  very  much 
interested  in  his  recovery.  In  the  meanwhile,  he  talked 
of  a  good  establishment,  gutes  JEtablissement  and 
promised  that  he  would  soon  give  him  reasons  to  be  very 
contented.  These  repeated  letters,  these  unaccustomed 
tones,  these  largesses,  must  have  put  the  prince  "  in  ag- 
ony." He  was  also,  at  that  time,  troubled  with  the 
idea  of  a  journey  that  he  had  to  make  to  Berlin,  to  offer 
salutations  to  the  Duke  of  Lorraine,  who  was  expected. 
First,  he  had  fear  that  this  prince,  the  affianced  of  Maria 
Theresa,  would  have  but  a  mean  opinion  of  this  miser- 
able Court,  just  returning  from  those  of  France  and 
England.  He  dreaded  it  much  more  on  account  of  meet- 
ing his  father  again.  "Far  from  Jupiter,"  he  said,  "far 
from  the  thunder."  He  went  so  far  as  to  feel  a  tardy 
affection  for  Ciistrin,  even  to  wish  "to  remain  here 
longer,  living  in  perfect  peace."  On  the  4th  of  Febru- 
ary, 1732,  at  midnight,  he  was  awakened  by  a  courier, 
who  brought  him  a  letter  from  the  king.  This  letter, 
at  this  unusual  hour,  could  only  announce  grave  news. 
It  began  with  a  formula  which  the  king  never  employed: 
"My  dear  son  Fritz; "  ordinarily  he  only  said:  "My 
dear  Son."  "  Fritz  "  was  a  burst  of  tenderness,  added 
to  all  the  preceding  indulgences: 


THE    MARRIAGE    OF    FREDERICK.  381 

♦ 

Potsdam,  February  4th,  1732. 
My  Dear  Son  Fritz: 

I  am  very  much  rejoiced  that  you  have  no  longer  need  of 
medicine.  You  must  take  good  care  of  yourself  yet  for  some 
days,  on  account  of  the  intense  cold,  for  I  and  all  here  are  indis- 
posed from  rheumatism.  So  watch  yourself  well.  You  know, 
my  dear  son,  that  when  my  children  are  obedient  I  love  them 
tenderly.  When  you  were  at  Berlin,  I  pardoned  you  with  all 
my  heart,  and,  since  that  time  I  have  thought  of  nothing  but 
your  welfare  and  to  establish  you  well,  not  only  in  the  army, 
but  with  a  suitable  daughter-in-law,  and  have  you  married  while 
I  am  still  living.  You  can  rest  assured  that  I  have  had  the 
princesses  of  the  country  examined  by  others,  as  well  as  pos- 
sible, through  reports  of  their  conduct  and  education.  .  .  Now, 
the  Princess  of  Bevern,  the  eldest,  has  been  found  good  and 
modestly  reared,  such  as  all  women  should  be.  You  must  tell 
me  your  sentiment  immediately.  I  have  bought  the  house  at 
Katsch,  which  will  be  for  the  Field-Marshal  Governor ;  I  will 
rebuild  (for  you)  the  house  of  the  Governor  and  furnish  it.  I 
will  give  you  enough  to  carry  on  the  expenses  of  your  house- 
hold and,  in  the  month  of  April,  I  will  send  you  to  the  army. 
The  princess  is  not  beautiful,  but  she  is  not  ugly.  You  must  not 
speak  of  this  to  any  one,  but  write  to  your  mother  and  tell  her 
that  I  have  written,  and  if  you  have  a  son,  I  will  let  you  travel. 
The  nuptial  ceremony  will  not  take  place  before  next  winter. 
In  the  meantime,  I  will  seek  occasions  sometimes  to  show  you 
honor,  and  I  will  thus  learn  to  know  you.  She  is  a  being  who 
fears  God,  and  that  is  everything.  She  will  demean  herself  as 
well  with  thee  as  with  her  parents-in-law.  May  God  bless  this 
union!  May  He  bless  you  and  your  successors!  May  He  keep 
thee  a  good  Christian,  and  have  thou  God  always  before  thine 
eyes,  and  do  not  believe  in  the  damnable  faith  of  a  Particular- 
ism and  be  obedient  and  faithful,  then  all  will  go  well  for  thee 
in  time  and  eternity.  And  the  one  who  desires  this  with  all  his 
heart  says:    Amen.  Thy  faithful  father  unto  death, 

"F.  W." 

"  If  the  Duke  of  Lorraine  comes,  I  will  send  for  thee.  I  be- 
lieve that  thy  betrothed  will  come  here.  Adieu.  God  be  with 
you." 283 


382  *   FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

THE    DOUBLE    PLAY    OF    THE    CROWN    PRINCE. 

In  reading  this  masterpiece  of  endearment,  this  propo- 
sition of  marriage,  followed  by  the  information  that  the 
house  would  soon  be  ready  for  the  newly  married  couple, 
this  portrait  of  the  princess,  in  two  morsels,  separated, 
so  as  to  better  swallow  them,  by  the  promise  of  a  jour- 
ney, after  the  birth  of  the  first-born;  finally,  in  the  Post- 
Scriptum,  the  word  betrothed,  with  the  announcement 
that  the  young  girl  will  perhaps  come,  and  he  also  may 
be  called,  Frederick  comprehended  that  everything  was 
arranged,  decided,  settled.  He  wrote  then  to  his 
father,  "  in  all  submission,"  that  he  would  not  "fail  to 
obey  his  orders  ;"  he  wrote  to  his  mother,  as  the  king 
had  commanded ;  but  he  sent  at  the  same  time  a  very 
short  note  to  Grumbkow,  in  which  he  called  the  princess 
"a  vile  creature."  The  note  finished,  he  again  took 
up  the  pen:  "  P.  S.  I  am  sorry  for  the  poor  soul,  for 
with  all  this,  there  will  be  one  more  unhappy  princess  in 
the  world." 

He  began  a  vigorous  correspondence.  The  king  hav- 
ing announced  that  the  marriage  would  not  be  before 
winter:  "  We  have  time  multiim"  wrote  he  to  Grumb- 
kow. Two  days  later  he  repeated  his  promises  of  sub- 
mission to  the  minister,  but  he  called  the  princess  the 
corpus  delicti;  he  requested  that  they  would  at  least  give 
her  a  second  education,  and  charged  Grumbkow  "to 
work  this  affair."  He  did  not  wish  to  have  a  stupid 
woman,  who  would  enrage  him  by  her  silly  remarks,  and 
whom  he  would  be  ashamed  to  bring  forward;  he  would 
like  better  for  her  to  be  a  .  .  .  .  He  hated  hero- 
ines of  romance;  he  also  feared  a  too  virtuous  person, 


THE    MARRIAGE    OF    FREDERICK.  383 

and,  rather  than  a  devotee,  with  a  hypocritical  smile  and 
a  half-dozen  bigots  at  her  heels,  he  would  prefer  the  great- 
est ....  of  Berlin.  Let  them  teach  the  prin- 
cess verbatim  "EEcole  des  Maris"  (School  for  Hus- 
bands); and  "UFcole  desFemmes"  (School  for  Wives). 
This  will  be  better  than  Vrai  Christianisme  (True  Chris- 
tianity) of  the  late  John  Arnd.  If  she  can  still  dance 
on  one  foot,  teach  her  music,  and  to  become  rather  too 
bold  than  too  virtuous.  But  if  she  is  stupid,  let  her  go 
to  the  devil.  The  prince  assured  Grumbkow  that  he 
would  much  prefer  to  marry  Mademoiselle  Jette,  with- 
out ancestors  or  advantages.  Now  Mademoiselle  Jette, 
Avas  Grumbkow' s  own  daughter,  and  he,  on  comparing 
this  passage  with  the  preceding,  did  not  relish  much  this 
impertinence  of  grand  seignior  to  vassal.284 

Grumbkow  tried  to  calm  the  prince.  He  represented 
to  him  that  the  Princess  Elizabeth  was  a  peaceful,  mod- 
est person,  and  that  wives  of  this  kind  are  the  ones  that 
give  the  least  cause  of  disturbance  to  their  husbands, 
whether  they  be  great  lords  or  simple  folk.  "My 
very  dear  general"  responds  Frederick,  "  I  will  believe 
you  on  every  other  subject  outside  of  woman,  al- 
though I  know  that  you  perhaps  have  known  some- 
thing of  them  in  past  time.  ...  I  firmly  persist 
in  my  sentiment,  and  one  would  have  to  be  a  great 
philosopher  to  prove  to  me  that  a  coquettish  woman 
has  not  many  advantages  over  a  zealot."  Grumbkow 
was  not  discouraged.  He  pictured  Frederick's  be- 
trothed to  him,  avoiding,  designedly,  a  flattering  por- 
trait, so  as  to  give  Frederick  the  agreeable  surprise 
of  finding  her  better  than  he  imagined  her  to  be.     He 


384  FREDERICK   THE    GREAT. 

reported  the  conversations  of  the  king,  full  of  prom- 
ises; the  king  will  give  his  son  time  "to  know  the 
person  in  question;"  before  deciding,  he  will  give  him 
back  his  confidence,  and  treat  him,  not  as  his  son, 
but  as  a  friend;  he  will  give  him  a  separate  household; 
for,  "I  comprehend,"  said  his  majesty  "that  we  must 
not  always  be  together,  and  that  it  will  be  something 
new  for  us,  when  we  meet  again , "  briefly,  he  will 
do  everything  in  reason  and  kindness,  and,  if  he  is 
content  with  the  conduct  of  his  highness,  he  will 
give  him  occasions  to  travel  and  know  the  world.285 

The  king  was  ignorant  of  the  correspondence  of  the 
prince  with  his  minister,  and  held  him  to  the  first 
declaration  of  obedience.  As  soon  as  he  saw  the  be- 
trothed, he  was  "infatuated;"  he  wrote  to  his  son  in 
praise  of  the  young  girl  and  guaranteed  that  she 
would  please  him ;  in  consequence  of  which,  he  an- 
nounced that  he  would  proclaim  the  marriage  as  soon 
as  the  prince  arrived  in  Potsdam.  Frederick  answered 
that  he  was  charmed  with  the  picture  his  father  sketched 
of  the  princess,  but  even  if  she  had  been  otherwise,  he 
would  submit  to  the  paternal  will.  The  king,  on  receipt 
of  this  letter,  was  touched.  He  showed  it  to  the  Prince 
of  Bevern,  father  of  Elizabeth,  and  to  Grumbkow. 
"Here,"  said  he  to  the  latter  personage,  "  read.  .  .  . 
What  think  you?" — "Well,  Sire,"  responded  Grumb- 
kow, "what  do  you  say  to  this  obedient  son  ?  What 
more  can  you  wish  ?  "  Frederick  William  replied  with 
tears  in  his  eyes:  "It  is  the  happiest  day  of  my  life." 
Then  the  king  repaired  to  the  adjacent  chamber  with  the 
Prince  of  Bevern,  to  embrace  him  at  his   ease.      Grumb- 


THE    MARRIAGE    OF    FREDERICK.  385 

kow  came  to  the  conclusion,  at  this  moment,  that  the 
prince  was  at  last  resigned.  Everybody  was  in  a  good 
humor  at  Potsdam;  the  queen  herself  was  gracious  to- 
wards Bevern.  After  dinner  she  had  the  coffee  served 
in  her  Holland  house  in  the  park.  Grumbkow  reassured, 
found  the  betrothed  very  nice  indeed  and  did  not  scru- 
ple to  confess  it  to  the  prince:  "I  must  acknowledge 
she  has  changed  greatly  to  her  own  advantage,  and 
that  the  more  one  sees  her,  and  the  more  one  be- 
comes accustomed  to  her,  the  prettier  one  finds 
her  ....  and  if  she  gains  more  flesh,  and  her 
form  becomes  rounder  (and  there  are  already  signs  of  it) 
she  will  be  very  seductive."  286 

Two  days  after  he  had  related  to  Frederick  the  joy  of 
the  king  and  the  satisfaction  of  all  the  family,  Grumb- 
kow received  in  his  turn  a  letter  from  the  prince  in 
which  he  named  his  fiancee  "the  abominable  object  of 
his  desires,"  and  declared  flatly  that  he  would  never 
marry  her.  Neither  hope  of  peace,  his  rights,  nor  for- 
tune would  make  him  change  his  mind.  "It  is  only 
exchanging  one  unhappiness  for  another."  He  wished 
to  marry  for  himself,  not  for  the  king.  His  father 
should  reflect,  as  a  good  Christian  "if  it  is  well  doing  to 
force  people  to  obtain  divorce,  and  to  cause  all  the  sins 
that  a  badly  assorted  marriage  makes  one  commit." 
Frederick  urged  Grumbkow  to  come  to  his  aid:  "If 
there  are  honest  men  in  the  world,  they  ought  to  think 
of  saving  me  from  the  most  perilous  step  that  I  have 
ever  taken  in  my  life."  If  he  were  abandoned,  he  would 
take  counsel  from  himself  alone:  "  I  have  been  unhappy 
all  my  life,  and  I  believe  it  is  my  destiny  to  remain  so. 


386  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

Let  come  what  will.  I  have  nothing  with  which  to  re- 
proach myself,  I  have  suffered  enough  for  a  crime  of  in- 
discretion, and  I  will  not  engage  myself  to  extend  my 
affliction  indefinitely,  I  have  still  some  resources,  and 
the  snap  of  a  pistol  can  deliver  me  from  my  trouble  and 
life.  I  believe  that  the  good  Lord  will  not  condemn  me 
for  it,  and  will  have  pity  upon  me  instead,  and  in  ex- 
change for  this  life,  give  me  salvation."287 

Grumbkow  was  struck  with  amazement  once  more — 
(again  he  fell  from  the  clouds) ;  he  felt  the  danger  of 
his  double  play:  "How  is  it?"  wrote  he  to  the 
prince,  "that  while  your  royal  highness  agrees  with 
the  king  in  everything,  you  are  in  despair,  and  wish  me 
to  turn  the  course  of  affairs,  a  thing  which  would 
cost  me  my  head  ?  No,  my  lord,  blood  is  thicker  than 
water.  ...  I  am  not  obliged  to  ruin  myself  and 
poor  family,  for  love  of  your  highness  who  is  not 
my  master,  and  whom  I  see  rushing  to  his  own  des- 
truction. I  fear  God  too  much  to  attach  myself  to  a 
prince  who  wishes  to  kill  himself  without  any  reason 
whatever.  .  .  .  My  lord,  you  may  have  all  the 
intelligence  possible,  but  you  do  not  reason  like  a 
good  man  and  a  Christian,  and,  beyond  that,  there  is 
no  salvation."  He  tried  to- excite  his  compassion  for 
the  queen,  and  to  frighten  him  in  regard  to  his  own 
fate.  "I  will  never  forget  what  the  king  said  to  me 
at  Wusterhausen,  when  your  royal  highness  was  at 
the  fortress  of  Custrin,  and  I  desired  to  take  your 
part:  'No,  Grumbkow,  think  well  on  what  I  am 
going  to  say:  May  God  will  that  I  may  be  deceived, 
but    my    son    will    not    die  a  natural  death;  may  God 


THE    MARRIAGE    OF    FREDERICK.  387 

will  that  he  die  not  by  the  hand  of  the  executioner.'" 
Grumbkow  brought  his  epistle  to  a  close  by  *  <  declar- 
ing that  he  withdrew  entirely  from  the  prince's  af- 
fairs; he  bestowed  "  his  blessing"  on  him,  and  quoted 
the  words  of  Solomon:  " a  prudent  man  foreseeth  the 
evil,  and  hideth  himself;  but  the  simple  pass  on  and 
are  punished."  At  the  same  time,  he  wrote  to  Wolden, 
that  he  left  it  to  his  care,  "  to  clear  up  the  trouble" 
and  took  his  very  humble  farewell  of  the  society  "not  hav- 
ing enough  spirit  to  have  his  head  cut  off  with  a  good 
grace."  He  excused  the  marshal  from  answering  him, 
and  requested  that  he  (the  marshal)  would  dispose  his 
royal  highness  to  forget  him  entirely.  288 

These  letters  arrived  at  Custrin,  just  as  Frederick, 
who  had  been  notified  from  Potsdam,  was  making  ready 
to  depart.  Grumbkow  expected  a  renewal  of  "the  old 
scenes."  He  expressed  his  anxiety  to  Seckendorff;  the 
prince  is  not  master  of  his  passions ;  they  will  betray 
him;  the  seven  wise  men  of  Greece  would  not  be 
capable  of  appeasing  father  and  son.  But  Grumbkow, 
who  thought  he  knew  his  Crown  Prince  so  well, 
was  deceived ;  everything  passed  off  in  the  best 
possible  manner.  Frederick  arrived  at  Potsdam  the 
26th  of  February.  Two  days  after,  the  king  officially 
asked  of  the  Beverns  the  hand  of  their  daughter. 
The  king  gave  to  his  son,  a  beautiful  watch  set  with  dia- 
monds, enclosed  in  a  handsome  jewel-case,  to  present  to 
the  princess.  He  also  ordered  taken  from  the  royal 
treasury,  a  wedding  ring,  valued  at  24,000  thalers  one 
of  his  own  father's  jewels,  which  he  had  kept  for  the  be- 
trothal ceremony.     The  Crown  Prince  appeared  at  his 


388  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

ease.  He  said  to  Grumbkow,  it  is  true,  that  he  could 
never  love  the  princess,  but  that  he  had  no  aversion  to 
her,  that  she  had  a  good  heart  and  he  wished  her  no 
harm.  With  Seckendorff,  he  was  gracious  and  "  open- 
hearted."  He  showed  that  he  was  perfect  master  of  him- 
self. Even  in  a  letter  to  his  sister,  two  days  before  the 
betrothal,  he  did  not  tell  his  thoughts  except  in  veiled 
words:  "The  person  is  neither  ugly  nor  beautiful,  not 
lacking  intellect,  but  very  badly  educated,  timid,  and 
lacking  much  in  the  ways  of  good-breeding.  You 
can  judge  by  this  as  to  whether  I  find  her  agreeable  or 
not." 

March  10th,  1732,  the  ceremony  of  betrothal  was  sol- 
emnized. As  they  exchanged  betrothal  rings,  the  eyes 
of  the  prince  were  suffused  with  tears.  He  received  the 
customary  congratulations,  then  moved  back  several 
steps,  and  began  talking  with  a  young  lady  of  the  Court, 
without  again  glancing  at  his  fiancee.™ 

FROM  THE  BETROTHAL  TO  THE  MARRIAGE. 

Prince  Eugene  came  forth  conqueror  in  the  first  en- 
gagement, but  the  battle  was  not  yet  won.  With  a 
fiance  like  Frederick,  promises  were  not  yet  marriage. 

Seckendorff,  while  maneuvering  like  a  docile  and 
clever  lieutenant,  feared  that  they  had  made  a  bad  busi- 
ness of  it.  He  was  convinced  that,  if  the  king  died  be- 
fore the  nuptial  ceremony,  the  Crown  Prince  would 
regain  his  liberty.  Then  suppose  the  marriage  accom- 
plished, the  prince  would  only  resign  himself  to  it  in  or- 
der to  have  the  license  to  lead  afterward  a  dissolute  life. 
4 'And  he  will  blame  the  Emperor,   and  altogether  the 


THE    MARRIAGE    OF    FREDERICK.  389 

consequences  will  be  bad."  He  disapproved  the  pre- 
cipitation with  which  they  had  carried  on  the  affair. 
Why  did  they  not  allow  the  red  spots  on  the  prin- 
cess' face  (she  had  just  recovered  from  an  attack  of 
small-pox)  time  to  disappear?  In  this  manner,  the 
crafty  minister  took  every  precaution  to  appear  inno- 
cent of  the  intrigue  of  which  he  was  the  main  leader. 
He  even  pretended  to  place  obstacles  in  the  way: 
"Neither  the  king,  nor  anyone  will  be  able  to  accuse  me 
of  being  urgent  in  this  affair,  either  directly  or  indi- 
rectly. The  king  has  recently  spoken  of  it  to  me.  I 
advised  him  not  to  be  in  such  great  haste."  He  did  not 
fail,  to  make  known  to  Frederick,  through  Grumbkow 
the  good  service  he  had  thus  rendered  him.290 

Prince  Eugene,  however,  was  full  of  confidence.  He 
gave  new  instructions:  to  obtain  from  the  king  the 
promise  that  he  would  thereafter  treat  his  son  better,  and 
tell  the  prince  that  he  owed  to  Seckendorff  and  Grumb- 
kow this  happy  change  in  the  paternal  humor;  to  form 
the  Court  of  the  newly  wedded  pair,  "of  faithful  ad- 
herents,"—  on  whose  sincerity  one  could  absolutely  de- 
pend, and  who  would  give  to  the  prince  "only  honor- 
able principles,  conforming  to  the  imperial  interests, — 
who  would  be  attached  to  Grumbkow  and  Secken- 
dorff." The  Princess  Elizabeth,  on  her  side,  will 
know  how  to  gain,  little  by  little,  the  love  of  her  hus- 
band, particularly  if  she  will  assume  "a  more  open  man- 
ner," "a  gayer  humor."  The  mind  of  the  prince  is  still 
flexible ;  the  bad  impressions  which  have  been  given 
him  by  the  evil-disposed  will  disappear.  In  the  mean- 
time,  they  must  afford    him    every    pleasure,    through 


390  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

money  and  other  means.  "  With  these  light,  uncertain 
dispositions,  it  is  necessary  to  enter  into  their  passions, 
so  as  to  make  yourself  agreeable  to  them,  and  then  you 
can  manage  them  usefully  afterwards."  All  this  seemed 
very  easy  to  Prince  Eugene.  He  already  saw  the  Crown 
Prince  penetrated  "  with  ideas  capable  of  strengthening 
the  friendship  of  the  two  royal  and  imperial  Courts,"  and 
imbued  with  sentiments  of  respect  and  love  for  his  im- 
perial majesty  and  the  august  archducal  house.  He 
concluded  that  affairs  would  end  much  better  than  could 
be  imagined  from  the  beginning  ;  but  the  marriage  must 
be  hastened,  every  means  possible  must  be  used,  auf 
alle  thunliche  Weise,  for  the  health  of  the  king  and  his 
manner  of  living  was  always  cause  of  much  anxiety;  and 
then  general  affairs  might  take  another  turn  It  is  there- 
fore very  desirable  to  obtain  from  the  king  a  fixed  date, 
but  there  must  be  no  appearance  of  haste,  nor  of  a  wish 
to  urge  him.291  Prince  Eugene  left  it  to  the  skillfulness 
of  Seckendorff  and  Grumbkow,  whom  he  never  separated 
from  one  another:  he  always  said,  "  Grumbkow  and 
you." 

Seckendorff  obeyed  to  the  letter.  He  took  much 
trouble  to  form  the  future  Court  of  the  prince.  He 
thought  to  give  him  for  Marshal,  Count  Schulenburg, 
and  this  candidate  was  discussed  at  length  by  Grumb- 
kow, Prince  Eugene  and  himself.  From  Vienna,  Eu- 
gene sent  objections;  Seckendorff  and  Grumbkow  re- 
sponded from  Berlin.  They  ended  by  agreeing  that  the 
old  general  was  the  honest  man  that  was  needed,  and  a 
good  Imperialist,  gut  kaiserlich  gesinnt;  but  Schulen- 
burg declined  the  office.     Wolden  remained  then  in  his 


THE    MARRIAGE    OF    FREDERICK.  391 

rank  of  Marshal  near  Frederick.  As  he  was  insignifi- 
cant, Seckendorff  and  Grumbkow  were  reconciled  to 
him.  They  succeeded  in  sending  Natzmer  away,  the 
political  confidant  of  the  prince,  his  accomplice  in  for- 
bidden pleasures,  notably  his  "love  affair;"  but  their 
greatest  success  was  the  appointment  of  Madame  von 
Katsch  to  the  dignity  of  First  Court  Lady  to  the  be- 
trothed princess.  Seckendorff  "placed  his  greatest 
hope"  in  this  lady,  because  she  was  clever,  full  of 
goodwill,  and  capable  of  exercising  "a  healthy  influ- 
ence" over  the  prince.  As  she  would  receive  from 
Bevern  and  from  the  king  but  the  sum  of  100  thalers, 
he  proposed  to  Prince  Eugene,  or,  as  he  said,  "  to  the 
enlightened  sense  of  his  most  princely  highness,"  to 
give  to  the  First  Lady  of  the  Court  a  pension  from  1,000 
to  1,200  florins,  by  means  of  which  she  would  be  able  to 
live,  '  *  and  would  be  entirely  won  over  to  the  imperial 
interest." 

Seckendorff  also  counted  upon  Madame  von  Katsch  to 
form  the  manners  of  the  Princess  Elizabeth,  and  he  pro- 
posed to  aid  her  in  this  to  the  best  of  his  ability.  He 
was  glad  that  the  Beverns  had  to  leave  the  Court  in  about 
twenty  days  after  the  betrothal  ceremony,  to  return  to 
Wolfenbuttel.  The  princess  could  then  commence  her 
new  education.  The  prince  complained  that  she  danced 
"like  a  goose."  Seckendorff  sent  to  Dresden  for  a  re- 
nowned master,  to  teach  her  to  dance  like  a  human  be- 
ing. He  trusted  that  the  betrothed  would  improve  in 
her  appearance.  "  She  really  has  as  fine  features  as  any 
one  may  wish  to  see.  She  is  well  formed.  Her  facial 
beauty  will  soon  return;  the  last  spots  that  the  small-pox 


392  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

left  are  going  away,  and  her  bust  will  develop  with  her 
years." 

Unluckily,  Frederick  became  very  restless.  "His 
principal  defect,"  wrote  Seckendorff  "is  dissimulation  and 
falsity.  One  can  not  trust  him  except  with  the  greatest 
precaution.  His  most  ardent  passion  is  sensuousness. 
They  say  that  the  strength,  of  his  body  is  not  suffi- 
cient to  sustain  him  in  his  evil  desires,  and  that  he 
seeks  in  "gallantries"  a  vain  glory,  rather  than  the 
gratification  of  a  vicious  passion.  He  does  not  lack 
intelligence,  but  there  is  but  little  solidity  in  him. 
He  is  more  preoccupied  in  forming  a  bon  mot  than 
telling  facts."  Seckendorff  thought,  as  did  Prince 
Eugene,  that  the  best  way  of  winning  his  highness  was  by 
giving  him  money  ;  but  they  must  go  to  work  with 
great  prudence.  In  the  palace,  valets  de  chambre, 
lackeys,  and  pages,  had  their  orders  to  give  a  faith- 
ful report  to  the  king  of  all  they  saw  and  learned, 
"under  penalty  of  losing  life,  honor,  and  reputation." 
If  they  saw  a  supply  of  money,  this  extraordinary 
event  would  not  fail  to  put  them  on  the  alert. 
And  the  prince  was  also  very  capable  of  expending 
this  imperial  subsidy  on  his  mistresses  instead  of  pay- 
ing his  debts.  There  were  many  difficulties  in  the 
way:  Seckendorff  overcame  them  to  the  best  of  his 
ability.  He  had  an  understanding  about  everything 
with  Grumbkow;  he  always  said:  "Grumbkow  and  I," 
or  "I  and  Grumbkow."  They  hoped  at  last  that  to- 
gether that  they  would  be  able  to  efface  "the  bad 
impressions  which  had  been  given  to  the  prince  about 
honest  people;"  and  "to  lead  him,  through  God's 
aid,  into  better  paths."292 


THE    MARRIAGE    OF    FREDERICK.  393 

There  remained  but  one  thing  now  to  satisfy  Prince 
Eugene,  and  that  was  to  obtain  a  date  for  the  mar- 
riage, but,  in  spite  of  all  attempts,  the  king  was  in 
no  hurry.  It  may  be  that  he  hesitated,  as  usual, 
before  the  accomplishment  of  an  act  which  bound 
him  to  Austria,  or  perhaps  he  did  not  know 
what  he  wanted.  The  date  was  fixed  several  times 
and  postponed:  fifteen  months  elapsed  between  the  be- 
trothal and  marriage,  filled  with  events. 

The  two  accomplices  passed  through  great  apprehen- 
sion. The  marriage  of  the  Crown  Prince  was  always 
considered  in  Europe  a  political  affair  of  the  most  su- 
preme importance,  and  England  disputed  with  Austria 
for  the  future  King  of  Prussia.  Degeiifeld,  who  had  noti- 
fied the  Court  of  London  of  the  betrothal  ceremonies  of 
Frederick  and  the  Princess  Elizabeth,  wrote  that  the 
English  nation  was  "terribly  piqued."  He  had  under- 
taken to  play  the  opposing  part  against  Seckendorff  and 
Grumbkow;  he  put  on  an  air  of  great  importance,  and, 
on  returning  to  Berlin,  entered  into  favor  with  the  king. 
He  soon  hazarded  propositions:  the  Prince  of  Wales 
could  marry  one  of  the  daughters  of  the  King  of  Prus- 
sia, and  Frederick,  the  Princess  Amelia.  Grumbkow  be- 
comes uneasy,  although  the  queen  speaks  to  him  of  the 
Bevern  marriage  as  if  it  were  already  accomplished,  and 
promises  to  take  the  best  care  possible  of  her  daughter- 
in-law.  She  even  affects  sympathy  for  Elizabeth:  "She 
has  not  the  ways  of  the  world  yet,  but  has  a  very  good 
presence  and  the  rest  will  come  ;  "  however,  Grumbkow 
knew  well  that  the  queen  hoped  for  "the  amendment ;" 
he  had  no  confidence  in  her,  and  he  had  reason.293 


394  FREDERICK   THE    GREAT. 

In  reality,  the  queen  detested  her  future  daughter-in- 
law,  and  continued  to  wish  for  the  English  marriage 
In  the  intimacy  of  her  little  Court,  she  freely  ex- 
pressed herself  about  the  Beverns;  her  children  knowing 
that  it  would  please  her,  imitated  the  princess.  In  the 
month  of  August,  1732,  Wilhelmina  being  at  Berlin, 
Frederick  obtained  permission  to  visit  her  there.  As 
the  king  was  absent,  the  tongues  were  given  full  sway 
At  table,  the  queen,  speaking  of  the  bride  elect,  said 
to  Wilhelmina:  "  Your  brother  is  in  despair  at  having 
to  marry  her,  and  he  is  right.  She  is  a  stupid  animal; 
to  everything  that  is  said  to  her  she  answers  with  a 
4 yes'  or  'no,'  accompanied  by  a  silly  laugh,  which 
makes  one  sick."  Upon  which,  the  Princess  Charlotte,  a 
lovely  girl,  whose  heavenly  blue  eyes  were  half  hidden  by 
blonde  curls,  interrupted  the  conversation  to  say:  "Oh! 
your  majesty  does  not  yet  know  all  her  accomplish- 
ments. I  was  present  one  morning,  at  her  toilet.  I 
thought  I  should  suffocate.  She  smelled  like  carrion. 
I  noticed  she  had  a  very  bad  form.  Her  skirt  was 
padded  on  one  side  and  one  of  her  hips  was  higher 
than  the  other.  .  .  ."  This  was  said  before  the  do- 
mestics, and  made  the  Crown  Prince  "change  color."  m 

If  Seckendorff  and  Grumbkow  had  only  been  sure  of 
the  king!  But  he  himself  kept  them  uneasy.  "God 
knows  whether  we  have  not  as  much  at  stake  as  our  ad- 
versary," wrote  Grumbkow  on  the  subject  of  the  English 
propositions.  He  saw  his  master  pass  through  all  the 
emotions,  "fear,  despair,  rage,  impatience;"  sometimes 
crying  out  the  health  of  the  Emperor  at  table:  Floreat 
Augustissimus ;    and  then  again  being  very  much  flat- 


THE    MARRIAGE    OF    FREDERICK.  395 

tered  by  the  advances  of  England  and  multiplying  the  se- 
cret interviews  with  Degenfeld.  Grumbkow  wTas  furious, 
for  he  held  this  Degenfeld  to  be  but  a  mean  politician, 
and  was  humiliated  to  think  that  men  like  Seckendorff 
and  himself  were  vanquished  like  the  Philistines  of  the 
olden  times  " by  the  jaw-bone  of  an  ass."  The  king,  of 
course,  spoke  of  the  contracted  marriage,  as  if  it  had  al- 
ready come  to  pass.  At  the  news  that  Madame  von 
Wreech  was  enceinte  and  that  the  Crown  Prince  was  ac- 
cused of  it:  "This  gives  me  pleasure,"  he  said ;  "he 
will  give  that  many  more  to  the  Princess  of  Bevern," 
but  he  did  not  hasten  to  conclude  the  ceremony.  "He  is 
very  capable,"  said  Grumbkow,  "of  consulting  no  one  but 
himself,  and  doing  the  contrary  of  that  which  one  ad- 
vises him  to  do."  Nor  was  Seckendorff  at  heart  feeling 
more  reassured.  He  saw  the  king,  on  receiving  the  let- 
ters of  congratulation  from  the  Emperor  on  the  betrothal 
of  the  Crown  Prince,  "kiss  them  devoutly."  "Grumb- 
kow and  I,"  wrote  he  to  Prince  Eugene,  "will  neglect  no 
opportunity  to  push  forward  the  marriage  secretly  unter 
der  Handzu poussiren;"  but  he  knew  very  well  that  his 
majesty  would  not  be  led  by  the  nose,  and,  after  all 
would  only  do  whatever  came  into  his  head.295 

However,  Seckendorff  and  Grumbkow  tried  to  see 
which  one  could  best  circumvent  the  Crown  Prince.  A 
correspondence  was  established  among  these  three  per- 
sonages (who  hated  and  had  a  contempt  for  one  another), 
full  of  spirit,  reciprocity,  goed  will,  and  cordiality. 
Seckendorff  began  the  placing  of  the  Augustissimus 
ducats  soon  after  the  betrothal. 

"A  true,   zealous,  servant  of  your  royal  highness," 


396  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

wrote  he  to  the  prince,  "has  so  much  at  heart  the  restora- 
tion of  harmony  in  the  royal  family,  that  he  cannot  help 
warning  your  royal  highness  that  all  care  must  be 
taken  to  preserve  it,  and,  for  fear  that  during  the  sojourn 
at  Custrin,  a  few  debts  could  not  be  prevented,  it  will  be 
absolutely  necessary  to  liquidate  them,  before  it  comes 
to  the  knowledge  of  the  king,  who  would  believe,  if 
he  knew  it,  that  the  money  had  been  misused.  A 
beginning  will  be  made  by  extending  to  your  royal 
highness  500  ducats,  to  be  used  toward  paying  the 
debts.  But,  as  it  will  create  surprise  if  they  are  all 
paid  at  once,  the  prince  will  have  the  prudence  to  pay 
but  a  part  every  month,  and  make  his  most  intimate 
friends  believe  that  this  payment  comes  from  the 
money  that  he  saves  from  what  the  king  gives  him 
for  his  monthly  allowance,  and  from  the  revenues  of 
his  regiment." 

Seckendorff  explains  after  this  the  way  to  proceed 
about  it.  The  bearer  of  the  letter  is  a  trustworthy 
man,  a  faithful  servant  of  Grumbkow,  and  will  not 
awaken  suspicion,  for  they  are  in  the  habit  of  seeing 
him  bring  books  to  the  prince.  His  highness  must  tell 
him  to  go  for  the  answer ;  the  man  will  return,  place  a 
package  upon  the  table  and  go  away.  His  highness  will 
have  the  kindness  to  "  break  "  the  present  note  and 
give  a  few  torn  pieces  to  the  bearer  of  the  ducats. 

Frederick  was  delighted  with  this  aid  which  was  a 
godsend  to  him.  "  The  book  that  you  have  obligingly 
sent  me,"  wrote  he  to  Seckendorff,  "is  charming,  I 
send  you  in  this  envelope  the  song  you  have  requested," 
—  that  is    to    say    the  fragments  of  the  broken  letter. 


THE    MARRIAGE    OF    FREDERICK.  397 

He  assured  his  dear  general  that  although  he  could 
say  "but  few  words"  he  was  none  the  less  with  much 
consideration  of  affection  and  esteem,  his  most  perfect 
friend  and  servitor. 

On  sending  the  "second  relay,"  Seckendorff  said  to 
the  prince  that  if  his  highness  approved  of  the  manner  in 
which  it  was  extended  to  him,  he  could  always  be  served 
in  this  way.  The  prince  approved,  and  fhe  exchange  of 
letters  and  songs  continued.  Seckendorff  made  an 
advance  of  2,000  florins  to  the  prince  in  order  to  pay 
for  the  great  recruits  that  came  from  Austria.  The 
prince,* who  knew  this  sum  would  never  be  reclaimed, 
presented  his  thanks.  His  letters  became  more  and 
more  "gracious  and  amiable."  He  acted  "with  his 
dear  general"  as  with  a  true  friend.  After  he  had  eaten 
up  the  1,300  ducats  that  his  father  had  given  him  to 
pay  for  new  recruits,  he  sent  his  creditor  to  Seckendorff. 
He  paid  and  even  passed  the  limits  that  Prince  Eugene 
had  suggested;  he  asked  for  instructions  from  Vienna, 
but  he  was  of  the  opinion  that  it  was  best  to  do  the 
thing  on  a  large  scale.  When  the  prince  is  married, 
said  he,  the  king  will  not  give  him  more  than  12,000 
thalers  a  year,  with  which  it  will  be  simply  impossible 
for  him  to  live.  The  2,500  ducats  of  imperial  pension 
will  not  be  a  sufficient  supplement.  If  they  do  not  wish 
to  abandon  the  Crown  Prince,  they  must  give  him  a 
pension  of  at  least  6,000  ducats,  taking  the  precaution 
to  declare  to  him,  that  beyond  this  sum,  he  need 
expect  nothing  from  his  imperial  majesty.  If  they 
prefer  to  lend  instead  of  giving,  "the  prince  will  have 
no  scruples  in  making  a   written  agreement,    but   they 


398  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

would  have  more  glory  and  it  would  be  better  for  the 
future  for  them  to  exact  nothing."  296 

Seckendorff  would  perhaps  have  ended  in  believing 
that  it  would  be  possible  to  win  Frederick,  had  he 
not  known  of  the  letters  the  prince  wrote  to  Grumb- 
kow.  Frederick,  with  the  assurances  that  his  position 
gave  him  as  the  heir  of  a  sick  king,  poured  out  his  con- 
fidences into  the  ear  of  the  other  ' '  dear  general. "  <  <  They 
wish  to  force  me  to  fall  in  love,"  wrote  he  to  Grumbkow 
on  receipt  of  a  letter,  wherein  the  king  reproached  him 
for  not  writing  oftener  to  his  Dulcinea;  "but,  unluckily 
not  being  of  the  nature  of  an  ass,  I  very  much  fear  that 
they  will  not  succeed."  He  acknowledged  that  he  did 
hot  write  often  to  the  princess,  but  it  was  "  because  he 
lacked  subject  matter  and  was  many  times  at  a  loss  to 
fill  up  his  page."  He  recalled  to  mind  that  they  had 
"proposed  this  marriage  to  him  nolens  volem,  and  that 
liberty  was  the  price  of  it."  Then  he  becomes  angry  ; 
he  suspects  that  the  paucity  of  his  correspondence 
as  a  lover  has  been  denounced  to  the  king,  by  his  future 
mother-in-law  whom  he  calls  "that  coarse  tripe-wo- 
man, the  duchess,"  and  whose  "proud  fontange"  *  he 
wishes  that  God  will  strike.  He  repeats  the  declarations 
already  made  upon  the  conduct  he  is  going  to  maintain 
after  marriage.  He  is  going  to  marry  like  a  "gallant 
man,"  that  is  to  say,  to  allow  Madame  to  act  as  it  seems 
good  to  her,  and  on  his  side  to  do  as  he  pleases,  and 
"long  live  liberty."  He  hopes  that  the  king  will  not 
meddle  with  his  affairs  after  the  nuptials,  or  else   the 

*A  fontange  was  a  knot  of  ribbon  worn  on  the  top  of  the  head-dress  in 
the  seventeenth  century.  It  was  so-called  from  the  name  of  the  first 
wearer,  the  Duchesse  de  Fontanges.— Translator. 


THE    MARRIAGE    OF    FREDERICK.  399 

princess  will  suffer  for  it.  "Marriage  renders  me  of 
age,  and  as  soon  as  I  have  reached  that  point,  I  am 
sovereign  in  my  own  house,  and  the  king  has  nothing 
to  do  with  it;  for,  no  woman  ought  to  be  in  the  gov- 
ernment of  anything.  ...  A  man  who  allows 
himself  to  be  ruled  by  women  is  the  greatest  coward  in 
the  world."  Finally,  he  confesses  all  his  sentiments  in 
regard  to  women,  "as  he  thinks  before  God."  He 
"loves  the  sex,  but  with  a  fleeting  love,  only  the 
desire  for  pleasure,  and,  after  that,  contempt."  He  is 
"not  of  the  metal  of  which  good  husbands  are 
made."  He  is  enraged  at  becoming  one  at  all,  but  he 
makes  a  virtue  of  a  necessity.  For  the  tenth  time  he 
threatens:  "I  will  keep  my  word,  I  will  marry,  but 
after  it  is  done,  then  good  bye  to  Madame,  and  the  right 
path." 

However,  he  decided  to  write  to  his  betrothed,  and 
also  to  the  Prince  of  Bevern,  his  future  father-in-law. 
The  latter  took  the  prince's  compliment  seriously  and 
thanked  him.  "The  duke  sends  his  thanks,"  wrote 
Frederick  to  Grumbkow,  "as  if  I  were  a  man  very 
much  fascinated  with  the  graces  of  his  daughter;  he  adds 
a  panegyric  on  the  high  esteem  which  I  have  already 
shown  her  and  pays  me  compliments  like  a  tavern-keeper. 
All  that  I  have  just  said  has  had  so  much  of  an  effect  upon 
me,  that,  desiring  his  supreme  happiness,  I  would  wish 
most  earnestly  that  the  Emperor  of  Morocco  would  fall 
in  love  with  this  princess  through  the  reputation  of  her 
charms,  carry  her  off  and  marry  her.  To  be  Empress  of 
Morocco  is  worth  twice  as  much  as  to  be  a  Crown  Prin- 
cess of  Prussia.     You  can  judge  after  this  whether  I  am 


400  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

a  Christian  or  not,  or  whether  I  do  not  wish  all  the  good 
in  the  world  to  happen  to  those  who  have  caused  me  sor- 
row. ...  I  can  not  comprehend  how  one  can  be 
so  good.      .      .      ." 297 

Seckendorff  began  again  to  doubt  when  he  read  these 
letters.  He  was  in  great  haste  to  complete  the  contract. 
The  king  fixed  for  the  date  of  the  marriage  January 
15th,  1733:  "God  will  that  we  may  be  there!"  wrote 
he  to  Prince  Eugene.298  The  intrigue  of  the  reconcilia- 
tion with  England  still  disturbed  him.  He  has  not  yet 
suspected,  but  he  is  soon  going  to  find  out  that  Vienna 
entered  into  this  intrigue  and  worked  to  break  the  Bev- 
ern  marriage. 

THE    ANGLO-AUSTRIAN    INTRIGUE. 

The  Emperor  had  been  reconciled  with  the  maritime 
Powers,  since  the  year  1731.299  He  had  obtained  from 
them  one  of  those  treaties  for  the  guarantee  of  the  Prag- 
matic Sanction,  for  which  the  Secretary  of  State,  Bar- 
tenstein,  knew  so  well  how  to  negotiate,  and  in  which 
nothing  was  lacking  and  nothing  was  valid.  He  wished 
to  be  on  good  terms  with  his  new  friends,  having  need  of 
their  support  against  the  house  of  Bourbon,  whose 
designs  on  Italy  were  not  disguised.  He  was,  besides, 
preoccupied  in  the  Polish  succession,  the  opening  of 
which  was  expected  and  led,  as  everyone  knows,  to  great 
trouble  in  Europe.  Now  England  requested  of  the 
Emperor,  among  other  gratifications,  to  aid  her  in  mar- 
rying the  Prince  of  Wales  to  a  Prussian  Princess.  It 
was  very  difficult  for  the  Court  of  Vienna  to  undo  the 
work  that  had  been  so  laborious  ;  however,  Prince  Eugene 


THE    MARRIAGE    OF    FREDERICK.  401 

had  begun  by  prescribing  redoubled  caution  to  Secken- 
dorff  ;  lie  gave  him  to  understand  more  and  more  clearly 
the  necessity  of  managing  England. 

In  the  month  of  April,  1732,  the  King  of  Prussia  had 
an  ardent  desire  to  see  the  Emperor,  who  was  going  on 
a  trip  to  Carlsbad.  Prince  Eugene,  notified  by  Secken- 
dorff,  was  very  much  embarrassed.  "This  visit,"  he 
responded,  "will  be  greatly  commented  upon  both  in  Eng- 
land and  elsewhere.  Try  to  thwart  his  plan,  doing  it 
in  the  most  secret  way,  without  having  the  least  appear- 
ance of  doing  so.  If  you  do  not  find  the  means,  make 
no  opposition;  declare  to  the  king,  on  the  contrary,  that 
it  will  be  very  agreeable  to  his  imperial  majesty,  (who 
considers  him  the  most  precious  of  his  friends,)  to 
embrace  him."  But  the  king  was  determined:  "  I  will 
certainly  go  and  see  the  Emperor,"  said  he;  "it  is  neces- 
sary for  me  to  know  him  personally ;  nothing  can  pre- 
vent me."  Prince  Eugene  had  to  yield:  "Assure  his 
majesty,"  wrote  he,  at  last  to  Seckendorff,  "that  his 
imperial  majesty  will  feel  a  great  pleasure  in  becoming 
personally  acquainted  with  him.  As  for  me,  nothing  in 
the  world  could  have  happened  more  agreeably  than  this 
so  much  desired  opportunity,  of  expressing,  by  word  of 
mouth,  my  most  submissive  devotion  to  his  royal 
majesty."  The  interview  actually  took  place  the  latter 
part  of  July,  in  a  castle  of  Bohemia.  The  Emperor 
arranged  matters  so  that  it  would  be  as  insignificant  as 
possible.300 

The  Court  of  Vienna  was  soon  obliged  to  give  a  posi- 
tive proof  of  her  good  will  to  England,  who  persisted 
in  desiring  at  least  a  Prussian  Princess  for  the  Prince  of 


402  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

Wales.  She  consented  to  enter  into  a  very  complicated 
plot. 

Before  the  betrothal  of  the  Crown  Prince  with  Eliza- 
beth of  Bevern,  a  marriage  had  been  arranged  between 
Charles,  a  brother  of  this  Princess,  heir-apparent  of  Bev- 
ern, and  the  Princess  Charlotte,  sister  of  Frederick. 
Austria  and  England  decided  that  Charles  of  Bevern 
should  renounce  the  hand  of  Charlotte,  and  receive,  in 
exchange,  that  of  the  Princess  Anne  of  England,  while 
Charlotte  of  Prussia  should  marry  the  Prince  of  Wales. 
Prince  Eugene  made  known  the  combination  to  Seeken- 
dorff.  The  latter  who,  every  day,  for  several  years,  had 
been  employed  in  exciting  the  bad  feelings  of  the  King 
of  Prussia  against  England,  was  dismayed  by  this  com- 
munication: "  Of  all  the  very  high  commissions  with 
which  his  imperial  majesty  has  charged  me,  I  have 
never  yet  found  any  as  difficult  as  the  one  his  highness 
has  transmitted  to  me  on  the  subject  of  changing  the 
marriages."  He  immediately  sought  Grumbkow  and 
told  him  of  the  astounding  news. 

Grumbkow  had  been  out  of  temper,  for  several  weeks. 
The  return  to  the  offensive  by  England,  the  renewing 
of  the  projects  that  he  had  regarded  as  definitely  buried, 
and  the  important  air  of  Degenfeld  troubled  him. 
He  pretended  that  he  wished  to  go  away.  "The  good 
God,"  said  he,  "will  surely  point  out  to  me  a 
haven  where  I  can  retire  from  this  drudgery."  Tie 
still  interested  himself  a  little  in  affairs,  "but  it 
was  to  close  the  mouths  of  others,"  rather  than 
to  serve  his  master.  He  was  worn  out  with  the 
father    and    the    son:      "I    do    not  believe    there    are 


THE    MARRIAGE    OF    FREDERICK.  403 

two  other  people  in  the  world  equal  to  them."  He 
bluntly  told  Seckendorff  "  that  he  was  disgusted  with 
his  majesty."  " The  king,  dined  here  with  me  like  a 
wolf,  supped  the  same  way,  drank  to  excess  and  went  off 
at  midnight."  Grumbkow  was  in  this  state  of  mind, 
when  Seckendorff  apprised  him  of  the  order  from  Vienna 
to  sustain  the  English  propositions.  This  "capped  the 
climax."  To  ask  Frederick  William  to  work  for  the 
reconciliation  of  the  Emperor  and  England,  was  treating 
him  like  a  knave  indeed.  The  king,  said  Grumbkow, 
"is  not  such  a  fool  as  they  think.  He  will  quickly  see 
at  what  they  are  aiming."  Then  God  knows  what  he 
will  do!  He  is  liable  to  break  off  .all  the  marriagec, 
that  of  the  Crown  Prince  with  Bevern,  as  well  as  that  of 
Charlotte.  Grumbkow  would  not  meddle  with  the 
affair;  he  "withdraws  his  hand  from  the  table."  He 
even  has  honest  scruples :  "I  am  not  one  of  these  men  who 
blow  hot  and  cold  with  the  same  breath;  I  would 
rather  die  than  advise  my  master  to  do  a  thing  contrary 
to  his  honor."  Besides  he  wishes  to  keep  "the  little 
that  remains  for  his  poor  family."  He  was  so  angry 
that  he  forgot,  at  the  close  of  his  letter,  where  he 
declared  his  proud  propositions  of  a  loyal  servitor,  that 
he  had  expressed,  at  the  beginning,  his  true  sentiments: 
"I  am  disgusted  with  this  Court,"  he  had  said,  but  added: 
"I  am  not  with  yours."  And  he  asked  for  the  reward  of 
his  good  services.  Modest  as  he  was,  he  was  not  ambitious 
for  great  promises:  "the  least  gift  (douceur)  that  you  will 
accord  to  me  on  your  part  will  give  me  more  pleasure 
than  all  the  most  far  reaching  hopes."  301 

Seckendorff  was  of  Grumbkow's  opinion  about  this 


404  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

strange,  sudden  change  of  his  Court,  but  he  was  obliged 
to  execute  the  orders  he  had  received.  His  colleague  ad- 
vised him  to  present  the  thing,  in  a  jesting  way,  and  not 
to  insist,  if  the  master  became  angry.  One  day  as  he 
seemed  to  be  favorably  inclined  towards  him,  Secken- 
dorff  risked  an  insinuation,  but  the  king  was  first  "  dis- 
turbed," then  "confounded."  Seckendorff  represented 
that  this  proposition  proved  the  sincere  desire  of  the 
English  to  become  reconciled  with  him,  and  that  no  one 
would  lose  in  the  combination.  "The  Princess  Charlotte 
would  become  Princess  of  Wales,  heiress  to  a  crown  and 
Charles  of  Bevern  would  marry  the  eldest  of  the  prin- 
cesses of  England."  "But,"  replied  the  king,  "what 
would  my  dear  Empress  say  to  this,  to  whom  the  mar- 
riage will  give  so  much  pleasure?  And  Bevern?  And 
Charles?  What  would  they  think  at  such  a  change  of 
things?"  He,  however,  desired  a  few  days  for  reflection. 
As  usual,  he  could  not  keep  from  seeking  to  draw  some 
advantage  from  this  new  condition  of  affairs,  but  reflec- 
tion only  exasperated  him  the  more.  He  imagined  that 
England  wished  to  compromise  and  "prostitute"  him. 
He  believed  it  to  be  a  new  intrigue  of  the  prince,  who, 
happily,  was  not  within  reach,  and  of  the  queen,  whom  he 
treated  with  the  greatest  harshness.  It  was  she  no  doubt 
and  his  son  who  were  leading  this  masquerade  to  catch 
"Amelia  "  again.  "  Very  well,"  said  he,  "since  they  are 
so  changeable,  the  Crown  Prince  shall  not  marry  at  all. 
I  have  yet  three  sons.  I  would  rather  see  the  destruc- 
tion of  my  whole  house.  Then  at  least  it  will  per- 
ish without  censure  of  having  changed  the  next  day  from 
what  it  desired  the  night  before." 


THE  MARRIAGE  OF  FREDERICK.        405 

Never,  and  it  is  not  a  small  thing  to  say,  had  he  been 
seen  in  such  a  rage.  He  waited  to  be  cured  of  the  gout 
to  fly  to  Potsdam,  there  to  take  refuge,  where  he  never 
more  wished  to  see  anybody.  All  business  was  sus- 
pended.302 

Upon  these  contradictions,  Bevern,  the  father,  whom 
the  Court  of  Vienna  had  not  deigned  to  take  into  her 
confidence,  did  not  know  what  was  going  to  become  of 
his  children,  and  wrote  to  the  king  to  say,  that  he  was 
paying  no  attention  to  what  the  malevolent  dared  to  cir- 
culate in  the  world:  "  With  divine  assistance,"  said  he, 
"we  will  see,  in  the  month  of  June,  my  dear  Elizabeth 
in  the  arms  of  the  Crown  Prince,  and  my  eldest  born, 
my  dear  Charles,  will  enjoy  the  fascinations  of  the  ami- 
able Princess  Charlotte."  The  king  sent  a  tender 
response.  He  assured  him  that  he  had  "acted  in  the 
whole  affair  with  the  sincerity  of  an  honest  man,"  and 
that  he  (the  king)  would  persist  in  it  and  was  even  anx- 
ious to  hasten  the  nuptials.  He  wrote,  in  jwst-scriptum 
himself:  "I  have  the  gout,  but  I  am  true  to  you  and 
yours  even  unto  death.  It  must  be  quickly  ended. 
This  is  my  modest  opinion."303 

At  last,  to  rid  himself  of  importunities  he  made  a 
great  scene  in  the  Tabagie:  "No,"  cried  he,  looking  fix- 
edly at  Grumbkow,  "I  can  bear  it  no  longer!  To  wish 
me  to  do  a  cowardly  act!  I!  I!  No!  Never!  Cursed  in- 
trigues! The  devil  take  them!  To  wish  to  make  me  out  a 
scoundrel ! "  And  he  said  that  if  he  was  sick,  this  was  the 
cause  of  it,  that  it  was  eating  his  very  heart  out  and  it 
would  finally  kill  him.  Grumbkow  was  congratulating 
himself  upon  not  being   compromised   in  this  venture. 


406  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

He  was  triumphing  over  the  ill  success  of  the  Anglo- 
Austrian  intrigue,  and  over  the  king,  his  master,  who, 
after  having  desired  to  put  him  aside,  now  had  recourse 
to  him.  "I  know  absolutely  nothing  about  it,"  said  he 
to  the  king,  "but  I  can  not  comprehend  your  uneasi- 
ness, your  majesty!"  He  kept  a  "regular  and  even 
temper"  during  this  storm,  and  began -again:  "Why  is 
your  majesty  so  agitated?  I  do  not  understand  what 
you  mean,  but  your  majesty  is  the  master.  You  have 
honest  men  around  you.  .  .  ."  "  Yes,  yes,"  replied 
the  king,  and  little  by  little  he  allowed  himself  to  be 
calmed  by  Grumbkow.  So  this  minister  was  again  in 
favor,  but  he  feared  or  pretended  to  fear  that  the  king 
would  never  pardon  Seckendorff,  of  whom  he  had 
spoken  insinuatingly  in  his  burst  of  anger.  Seckendorff 
repaired  as  well  as  he  could  the  awkward  mistake  imposed 
upon  him.  He  threaded  his  way  carefully  through  an 
interview  that  his  friend  contrived  to  give  him  with  the 
king.  By  degrees  Frederick  William  restored  him  again 
to  his  good  favor;  he  actually  accepted  an  invitation  to 
dinner.  "At  table,  I  hope  that  we  shall  make  our  peace," 
wrote  Seckendorff  to  Prince  Eugene,  who  was  a  little 
ashamed  that  "the  mine  missed  fire,"  and  recommended 
his  agent  to  do  everything  to  re-establish  his  and  Grumb- 
kow's  reputation  at  Court.30* 

Affairs  took  up  again  their  course  towards  the  mar- 
riages of  Charles  of  Bevern  with  Charlotte  of  Prussia, 
and  the  Crown  Prince  with  Elizabeth  of  Bevern. 

THE    MARRIAGE. 

The  Crown  Prince  had  some  inkling  of  these  intrigues 
and  of  these  tempests.     He  certainly  hoped  to  gain  by 


THE    MARKIAGE    OF    FREDERICK.  407 

them  but  he  remained  quiet.  His  correspondence  con- 
tinued with  the  two  dear  generals,  as  if  nothing  unusual 
was  passing.  He  had  not  enough  expressions  of  grati- 
tude for  Seckendorff,  and  his  imperial  majesty,  who 
showed  him  so  much  kindness.  They  had  at  Vienna  the 
happy  idea  of  giving  a  pension  to  poor  Duhan,  who  was 
still  in  disgrace  and  poverty.  "It  is  an  action,"  wrote 
the  Crown  Prince,  "worthy  of  the  magnanimity  and 
generosity  of  the  Emperor."  He  professed  his  faith  as 
a  good  imperialist:  "I  will  make  it  a  rule  to  show  on 
all  occasions,  and  as  much  as  my  duty  will  permit,  the 
attachment  and  the  high  veneration  that  I  have  for  the 
Emperor  personally,  and  this  more  through  report  of 
his  eminent  qualities,  than  through  regard  for  his  exalted 
position."305  He  asked  nothing  better  than  to  contract 
new  debts,  as  he  would  be  sure  to  pay  them.  "But, 
sir,"  added  he,  "there  still  remains  another  party  to 
succor;  my  dear  sister  of  Baireuth,  whose  very  sad  con- 
dition, cuts  me  to  the  heart.  For  the  love  of  God,  let 
there  be  some  way  of  ameliorating  her  lot  through  the 
king!  She  has  had  very  advantageous  promises  given 
her  in  his  own  hand-writing,  but  it  has  gone  no  further." 
"  Through  the  king,"  was  a  delicate  manner  of  express- 
ing it:  Seckendorff  understood  this  new  appeal  to  the 
Emperor's  purse.  The  prince  himself  put  in  good  con- 
dition by  these  kind  proceedings,  led  to  this  benevolent 
physician  those  who  were  suffering  with  the  same  mal- 
ady,— that  is  to  say, — lack  of  money.306 

Of  course  he  claimed  for  himself  the  most  care,  being 
the  principal  invalid.  The  king  sent  him  to  Brunswick, 
to  his  betrothed,  without  offering  "  to  make  good"  his 


408  FREDERICK   THE    GREAT. 

expenses.  "I  admit,"  wrote  he  to  Seckendorif,  "  that  I 
am  very  much  embarrassed,  finding  myself  short  of 
cash.  Here  I  acknowledge  frankly,  my  dear  friend,  that 
you  could  draw  me  out  of  the  difficulty,  by  lending  me 
a  certain  sum."  A  short  time  after  this  another  demand. 
The  prince  had  quite  caught  the  tone  of  an  accomplished 
borrower.  To  be  sure  he  could  address  himself  to  others: 
"But  I  would  much  rather  trust  in  you,  knowing  you  to 
be  one  of  my  best  friends,  than  to  any  other."  How- 
ever, he  would  repay,  as  soon  as  he  was  able  to  do  so, — 
when  he  was  married,  but  he  nevertheless  would  always 
be  under  great  obligations  to  his  very  dear  friend. 
Seckendorif  responded  in  the  tone  of  a  skillful  creditor. 
He  called  his  packages  of  money  a  little  aid,  an  allow- 
ance, a  compensation.  He  had  pretty  schemes  for  sending 
it.  The  money  will  be  sent  to  a  maitre  de  poste  in  a 
box  of  Spanish  tobacco,  addressed  to  the  initials  S.  A. 
R.*  The  prince  is  requested  not  to  be  disturbed  about 
the  repayment:  "There  need  be  no  haste,  for  the  lender 
only  asks  a  recognition  proportionate  to  the  interests 
of  the  house."  He  never  answered  by  a  refusal,  he 
had  the  appearance  always  of  anticipating  the  requests. 
The  king  becomes  restless.  Grumbkow  thinks  him 
in  imminent  danger  of  becoming  insane,  so  incapable  is 
he  of  supporting  a  trouble.  Does  he  not  speak  of  abdi- 
cating and  retiring  to  Verona,  because  they  give  him 
some  disturbance  in  regard  to  recruiting  ?  Neither  is 
Seckendorif  satisfied  with  Frederick  William's  health. 
He  seemed  to  be  very  well  in  the  spring  of  1733,  and 
had  a  good  color,    but  his  hearing  does  not  return,  his 

*  "Son  Altesse  Royale."    French  for  His  Royal  Highness.— Translator. 


THE    MARRIAGE    OF    FREDERICK.  409 

leg  is  swollen,  he  has  bad  nights,  his  blood  is  excited  ; 
to  be  brief,  his  majesty  could  be  taken  off  in  twenty- 
four  hours;  it  is  absolutely  necessary  to  gain  the  prince. 
At  the  same  time  that  he  confided  his  uneasiness  to 
Prince  Eugene,  he  addressed  to  Frederick  a  recapitula- 
tion of  the  imperial  favors,  but  in  a  very  discreet  way. 
He  promised  him  others;  they  will  do  more  for  Duhan, 
whose  condition  is  already  improved.  They  will  "do 
everything  in  the  world  for  the  consolation  of  the  wor- 
thy Crown  Princess,"  they  will  see  if  they  cannot  find 
near  the  Empress  a  few  thousand  florins  for  her.  They 
will  do  other  things  if  it  is  necessary:  "Happy  are 
those  who  have  the  good  fortune  to  be  esteemed  by  your 
royal  highness.  They  will  never  be  neglected  by  the 
imperial  Court,  because  everyone  knows  that  your  royal 
highness  only  likes  those  people  who  have  merit." 
Briefly,  the  prince  can  count  upon  the  Emperor's  assist- 
ance until  the  good  God  will  change  for  the  better  his 
royal  highness'  position,"  which  means, — when  the 
king  dies.  Then,  they  are  convinced  that  the  prince  will 
be,  like  his  father,  a  friend  to  the  Emperor.  "The  union 
and  perfect  good  understanding  between  the  houses  of 
Austria  and  Brandenburg  have  procured,  for  more  than 
ten  years,  such  reciprocal  advantages,  that  his  imperial 
majesty  will  see  with  pleasure,  your  royal  highness  con- 
tinuing in  these  salutary  principles  for  the  public  good." 
Seckendorff,  by  dint  of  repeating  the  anthem,  ended 
in  believing  it.  He  found  the  prince  charming,  truly 
grateful  for  what  had  been  done  for  himself  and  sister, 
really  very  cordial,  treuherzig.  He  hoped  not  only  that 
Frederick    would   acknowledge    "the   price  and   utility 


410  FREDERICK   THE    GREAT. 

of  the  very  high  imperial  grace,"  but  that  the  Princess 
of  Baireuth  would  also  act  in  the  same  sensible  manner 
as  her  brother.  Naturally  Wilhelmina  showed  her  grat- 
itude also  ;  flatterer,  that  she  was,  she  promised  that  the 
Crown  Prince,  two  years  after  his  marriage,  would  have 
'just  as  much  love  for  his  wife,  as  he  then  had  aversion 
for  his  betrothed.  Seckendorff  still  had  some  doubts,307 
but  he  allowed  himself  to  be  persuaded.  Were  it  only 
through  egotism,  through  a  refusal  to  confess  to  himself 
that  all  his  trouble  at  this  Court  had  been  useless,  he  had 
to  believe  in  definite  success. 

Nevertheless  the  Crown  Prince  continued  to  indicate 
to  Grumbkow  alarming  inclinations.  At  the  hour  of 
departure  for  a  visit  to  his  betrothed,  he  laments:  "I  do 
not  feel  great  impatience  for  the  trip  to  Brunswick, 
knowing  already  in  advance  what  my  mute  will  tell  me. 
It  is,  however,  her  best  quality,  and  I  agree  with  you 
that  a  silly  fool  of  a  wife  is  a  blessing  from  heaven.  In 
short,  I  will  play  in  the  Brunswick  comedy  so  that  there 
will  be  nothing  lacking."  In  the  meantime,  he  was 
studying  compliments  for  this  visit  by  going  to  the  wild- 
boar  hunt,  for  "between  Westphalians  and  swine  (the 
Westphalian  being  born  and  reared  among  swine),  there 
was  no  difference."  Then  followed  facetious  remarks 
upon  the  presents  that  the  poor  girl  sent  to  him, — 
Brunswick  sausages  and  a  porcelain  snuff-box:  "My 
princess  has  sent  me  a  porcelain  snuff-box,  which,  on 
opening  the  package  I  found  broken,  and  I  do  not  know 
whether  it  is  to  mark  the  fragility  of  her.  .  .  , — of  her 
virtue,  or  of  the  whole  human  body.  I  have  taken  it 
for  a  very  bad  sign,  for  a  broken  snuff-box,  according  to 
the  occult  philosophy  of  Agrippa,  signifies  illicit  love."308 


THE    MARRIAGE    OF    FREDERICK.  411 

Notwithstanding,  Frederick  was  resigned.  He  strug- 
gled no  longer,  and  the  day  fixed  for  the  marriage  would 
have  arrived  without  any  obstructions  in  the  way,  if  the 
Anglo-Austrian  intrigue  had  not  interfered  once  more. 
England  did  not  let  go  her  hold.  She  must  have  Fred- 
erick now  for  one  of  her  princesses.  When  the  marriage 
day  of  the  prince  was  fixed  and  published,  she  exacted 
a  new  effort  from  the  Court  of  Vienna.  Now  the  King 
of  Poland  died  February  1,  1733;  Louis  XV.  declared 
that  he  would  defend  with  all  his  power  the  freedom  of 
the  elections  in  Poland,  and  would  consider  a  violation 
of  this  liberty  as  an  attempt  at  the  peace  of  Europe. 
Austria,  who  was  under  treaty  with  Russia,  to  prevent 
the  election  of  Stanislas  Lecszinski,  felt  the  approach  of 
war.  She  had  need  of  pleasing  the  London  Cabinet; 
Prince  Eugene  ordered  a  new  step  to  be  taken  by  Seck- 
endorff  with  the  king.  This  time  Austria  and  England 
left  Charlotte  to  the  Prince  of  Bevern,  but  offered  to 
the  Crown  Prince  the  hand  of  Amelia  of  England. 

The  order  reached  Seckendorff  on  the  morning  of 
the  11th  of  June,  at  Salzdalum  in  Hanover,  where  the 
ceremony  was  to  take  place.  The  two  families  had  been 
together  since  the  day  before.  Seckendorff,  on  reading 
the  letter  of  Prince  Eugene,  was  seized  with  terror.  He 
was  obliged  to  obey,  and  that  immediately,  but  what 
was  going  to  pass  between  the  king  and  himself?  He 
hurried  to  Grumbkow,  and  read  him  the  dispatch,  and 
asked  a  way  to  acquit  himself  of  it.  Grumbkow  pointed 
out  to  him  the  dangers  of  this  irrational  proceeding, 
but  he  preached  to  a  convert.  Seckendorff  told  him  so 
and  claimed   his   aid.     The  old  accomplice  refused  for 


412  FREDERICK   THE    GREAT. 

general  political  reasons  and  individual  interest.  He  did 
not  understand  how  Austria  could  employ  herself  in 
placing  an  Englishwoman  upon  the  throne  of  Prussia; 
but  after  all  it  did  not  concern  him:  that  which  did 
regard  and  touch  him,  was  the  necessity  where,  in  order 
to  triumph  over  the  politics  against  which  he  had 
always  fought,  he  would  have  to  humiliate  himself 
before  the  faction  of  the  other  ministers,  and  expose 
his  poor  family  to  ruin  and  his  neck  to  the  knife. 
All  that  he  could  promise,  to  show  his  absolute  devo- 
tion to  his  imperial  majesty,  was  not  to  compromise 
the  proposition,  if  the  king  asked  his  advice. 

Seckendorff  had  to  venture  alone.  He  said  to  the 
king  that  he  was  charged  by  the  Emperor,  with  an  im- 
portant communication,  but  not  a  disagreeable  one. 
The  king  who  was  still  in  bed  gave  permission  for  him 
to  enter.  Seckendorff  approached  the  bed,  and  with  a 
smile  upon  his  lips,  told  the  king  that  he  had  received, 
by  courier,  a  few  moments  since,  the  order  to  open 
propositions  to  him  uj)on  a  very  grave  subject;  he,  how- 
ever, dared  not  acquit  himself  of  his  commission,  if  his 
majesty  would  not  promise  him  to  listen  with  patience, 
and  not  become  angry.  The  promise  given  he  laid  the 
affair  before  him.  The  king  controlled  himself  and 
responded:  "If  I  did  not  know, — if  I  was  not  sure  of 
your  being  an  honest  man,  I  should  think  I  was  dream- 
ing. If  you  had  spoken  in  this  way,  three  months  ago, 
I  do  not  know  what  I  might  have  done  through  affection 
for  his  imperial  majesty;  although  it  is  contrary  to  his 
interest  and  mine  that  my  eldest  son  should  marry  an 
English  princess;  but  now!  I  am  here  with  the  queen!  All 


THE    MARRIAGE    OF    FREDERICK.  413 

Europe  knows  that  the  marriage  will  take  place  to-mor- 
row. You  see,  this  is  the  English  artifice  again,  to 
make  me  pose  before  the  world,  as  a  man  without  honor 
or  faith." 

As,  after  all,  the  king  still  remained  calm,  Secken- 
dorff,  (no  doubt  very  much  astonished,)  took  up  the 
thread  of  conversation  again,  and  held  it  for  some  time, 
submerging  in  a  flood  of  words  the  strange  proposition. 
He  acknowledged  that  he  really  was  not  of  the  opinion 
of  his  imperial  majesty,  that  the  two  kings  of  England 
and  Prussia  should  be  closely  united,  but  the  welfare  of 
Europe,  and,  particularly,  the  Germanic  country,  exacted 
this  union,  to  which  his  imperial  majesty  sacrificed  the 
advantage  of  his  own  house.  The  king  continued  to 
listen ;  Seckendorff  said  that  he  had  upon  his  person  a 
letter  from  Prince  Eugene  to  his  majesty,  and  a  copy 
of  this  letter.  According  to  his  instructions,  he  should 
read  to  his  majesty,  with  his  permission,  this  copy; 
if  the  king  thought  that  he  could  not  accept  the  orig- 
inal, Seckendorff  would  not  deliver  it.  The  king, 
after  having  heard  the  reading,  said  that  he  had  no 
scruples  in  accepting  and  answering  it.  Seckendorff 
then  gave  him  the  original,  and  began  his  discourse 
again.  He  represented  that  the  animosity  between 
England  and  Prussia  wrould  be  greatly  increased,  after 
the  king  had  repulsed  this  polite  proposition.  It  is 
true,  said  he,  that  all  the  preparations  are  made  for  the 
marriage  to-morrow,  but  he  suggested  a  way  not  to 
lose  everything  and  conciliate  .all  parties.  Instead  of 
the  Crown  Prince  and  the  Princess  of  Bevern,  they 
could   marry   Charles    of  Bevern  and  Charlotte  ;  then, 


414  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

later,  they  could  celebrate  the  nuptials  of  the  Prince 
of  Wales  with  the  Princess  of  Bevern,  and  the  Crown 
Prince  with  the  Princess  Amelia. 

Frederick  William  let  this  effrontery  pass,  perhaps 
because  while  listening  he  was  seeking  once  more  a 
means  of  fishing  in  this  troubled  water.  He  opened 
the  letter  from  Prince  Eugene,  and  then  returned  it 
to  Seckendorff,  with  the  order  to  give  it  to  Grumbkow 
and  tell  him  the  import  of  the  response,  that  no  ad- 
vantage in  the  world  would  induce  him  to  decide  to 
stain  his  honor  and  forfeit  his  word.  Nevertheless,  he 
asked  nothing  better  than  to  be  on  friendly  terms 
with  England.  To  please  the  Emperor,  he  would  give 
to  the  Prince  of  Wales  one  of  his  daughters.  He 
would  even  take  an  English  princess  for  his  second 
son,  if  England  would  elect  him  Prince  of  Courland  so 
that  he  would  be  in  a  position  to  take  care  of  his  wife. 
Upon  which,  he  took  farewell  of  Seckendorff,  telling  him 
that  he  had  executed  the  orders  he  had  received  like  a 
man  of  honor. 

Seckendorff  repaired  to  the  ministers,  who  wrote  out 
the  response.  When  they  brought  it  back  to  the  king, 
he  gave  full  vent  to  his  anger.  Again  he  accused  the 
queen  and  Crown  Prince  of  complicity  in  the  intrigue, 
and  he  sent  Grumbkow  to  them  to  demand  an  explana- 
tion of  it.  The  Crown  Prince  swore  that  he  was  inno- 
cent. He  added  that  he  could  not  comprehend  at  all 
the  conduct  of  the  Court  of  Vienna;  as  for  him, — and 
he  requested  Grumbkow  to  tell  the  king, — that  death 
alone  would  prevent  him  from  keeping  his  word  to  the 
Princess  of  Bevern.309 


THE    MARRIAGE    OF    FREDERICK.  415 

Upon  this  assurance,  the  day  ended  tranquilly.  That 
evening,  there  was,  at  the  Court,  a  pastoral  play;  the 
Crown  Prince  played  the  role  of  a  peasant-lover;  Apollo, 
who  unexpectedly  arrived,  gave  him  the  prize.  The  next 
day,  June  12th,  the  marriage  was  celebrated.  At  noon, 
the  young  husband  wrote  to  his  sister:  "My  dear  sister, 
the  ceremony  has  just  been  performed,  and  God  be  praised 
that  it  is  all  over."310 

There  was  "one  more  unhappy  princess  in  the  world." 

Elizabeth  of  Bevern  did  not  merit  this  destiny.  The 
testimonies  of  her  contemporaries  are  all  favorably 
inclined  toward  her;  even  the  much-to-be  dreaded  sister- 
in-law,  the  Margravine  of  Baireuth  is  not  very  severe  on 
her:  "The  Crown  Princess,"  said  she,  "  is  tall;  her  form 
is  not  slender:  she  brings  her  body  forward  in  such  a 
way  that  it  gives  her  a  very  bad  carriage.  Her  com- 
plexion is  of  a  glaring  whiteness,  and  this  fair  skin  is 
relieved  by  a  high  color.  Her  eyes  are  of  a  pale 
blue,  not  promising  much  intellect.  Her  mouth  is 
small.  All  her  features  are  small,  without  being  beau- 
tiful, and  the  whole  expression  of  her  face  is  so 
petite,  so  infantile,  that  one  would  think  that  her  head 
belonged  to  a  child  of  twelve  years.  She  has  ash-colored 
hair  which  curls  naturally,  but  all  her  beauty  is  spoiled 
by  her  black,  uneven  teeth.  She  does  not  know  how  to 
deport  herself,  nor  has  she  the  slightest  idea  of  how  to 
turn  an  expression,  having  much  difficulty  in  making  her- 
self understood;  one  is  obliged  to  guess  at  what  she 
intends  to  say,  which  is  most  embarrassing."  3U 

This  portrait  is  completed  by  a  few  traits  given  in  a 
letter  to  Grumbkow  from  his  daughter.     It  states  that 


416  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

the  betrothed  princess  was  very  timid  in  public,  and 
before  her  mother:  "  When  she  is  with  her  mother,  she 
does  not  open  her  mouth,  and  blushes  every  time  they 
speak  to  her,  which  shows  that  she  is  guarded  very  rig- 
idly; and  she  has  no  liberty  whatsoever,  not  even  to 
receive  ladies  in  her  chamber.  ...  As  for  me, 
I  had  the  honor  of  speaking  with  her  at  an  assembly, 
where  she  was  alone  and  at  her  ease;  I  can  assure  you 
papa,  that  she  does  not  lack  either  spirit  or  judgment  and 
that  she  argues  upon  everything  in  a  very  pretty  manner, 
and  is  pleasing  and  appears  to  have  a  very  good  disposi- 
tion. She  is  exceedingly  fond  of  diversion.  ...  I 
can  not  say  she  has  much  style,  she  is  too  loose  in  her  car- 
riage. ...  If  she  had  some  one  to  tell  her  this,  it 
would  change  her  very  much.  .  .  ."  The  princess 
liked  Berlin,  and  hoped  to  return  soon  and  "  wished" 
for  the  day  of  her  marriage.312 

A  sad  picture  of  a  poor  girl,  neither  ugly,  nor  stupid, 
who  was  reared  by  severe  parents;  child-like,  deli- 
cate, pretty,  and  timid,  and  only  asking  to  be  re-assured, 
caressed,  loved;  and  she  was  worthy  of  being  loved, 
but  life  to  her  was  going  to  be  a  long  melancholy  oner 
borne  with  the  resignation  of  a  saint  and  the  dignity  of 
a  heroine. 

In  the  history  which  we  have  just  related,  one  person, 
alone  is  interesting:  it  is  this  unhappy  bride. 

The  trio,  Prince  Eugene,  Seckendorff,  Grumbkow, 
were  villainously  ugly.  The  gravity  of  Eugene  and  Seck- 
endorff  gave  to  their  hypocrisy  a  comical  solemnity. 
Grumbkow  was  at  least  in  good  spirits;  he  half  confessed 
his  cynic  philosophy  and  frankly  refused  to  endanger 


THE    MARRIAGE    OF    FREDERICK.  417 

his  head  and  the  welfare  of  his  poor  family;  but,  like 
the  two  others,  he  spoke  the  language  of  "Tartuffe." 
God  is  the  common  resource  of  the  three  personages; 
when  a  thread  of  the  intrigue  threatens  to  break,  Secken- 
dorff  recommends  it  to  God.  All  three  boast  of  their 
Christianity,  and  they  always  have  at  their  tongues  end 
the  word  "honesty."  Eugene  and  Seckendorff  agree  that 
if  they  attain  their  end,  they  owe  it,  "to  the  honesty  of 
Grumbkow  alone,  Grumbkow' }s  Ehrlichkeit"  They  owe, 
but  they  pay.  Grumbkow  received  the  little  "douceur" 
that  he  hoped  would  be  given  him, — 40,000  ducats, — 
besides  his  annual  pension  of  a  thousand.  "  If  any  man 
in  the  world  merits  a  favor,  it  is  he"  said  Seckendorff, 
in  the  plan  of  the  budget  he  proposed  to  Prince  Eugene. 
In  this  budget,  Grumbkow  figures  in  singular  com- 
pany. Before  him  come  the  Crown  Prince,  and  the 
Margravine  of  Baireuth  specially  recommended,  for  if 
any  one  is  capable  of  instilling  in  her  brother  good 
"principles"  it  is  this  princess.  After  which,  come  the 
porter  Eversmann,  the  confidential  man  of  the  king,  who 
receives  from  Austria  an  income  of  100  ducats,  and 
Reichenbach,  former  minister  of  the  King  of  Prussia  to 
London.  "With  Reichenbach,  his  imperial  majesty  has 
reason  to  be  very  contented,"  said  Prince  Eugene  "because 
he  has  worked  to  maintain  and  increase  the  misunder- 
standing between  the  two  Courts  of  Berlin  and  London. " 
These  consciences  were  sold  cheap.  Reichenbach  began 
by  a  salary  of  600  thalers  in  1731;  he  had  900,  in  1733. 
It  is  true,  that,  if  he  is  obliged  on  account  of  his  zeal  in 
the  service  of  the  Emperor,  to  leave  that  of  the  King  of 
Prussia,  he  has  promise  of  finding  a  good  welcome  in 


418  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

Austria  and  a  position  of  privy  councillor;  but  Prince 
Eugene  wishes  that  Reichenbach  will  not  retire  from 
Prussia  until  reduced  to  the  last  extremity,  until  that 
friendship  which  exists  between  the  Emperor  and  the 
king  assures  him  of  advancement  in  Prussia.313 

This  is  the  very  acme  of  perfidy. 

Prince  Eugene,  Seckendorff  and  Grumbkow  com- 
plained of  the  "  dissimulation"  of  the  prince, — of  his 
"  falsity."  The  most  piquant  thing  is  that  they  judged 
this  deceitfulness  by  the  favors  that  they  showered  upon 
Frederick.  "  He  must  be  a  hypocrite,"  said  Secken- 
dorff, "to  write  to  Grumbkow  in  such  obliging  terms." 
But  the  Crown  Prince,  who  knew  them  well,  paid  them 
back  in  their  own  coin.  He  knew  the  wickedness  of  his 
enemies,  and  at  the  same  time,  their  folly,  for,  if  it  was 
odious  to  dispose,  unceremoniously  of  these  couples  of 
young  people  that  they  married  and  remarried, — and  to 
practice,  in  Christian  Europe,  a  trading  of  princes  and 
princesses,  it  was  ridiculous  to  give  themselves  the 
trouble  of  these  lies  and  all  this  stratagem,  to  assure  them- 
selves of  the  person  of  the  Crown  Prince.  Grumbkow 
and  Seckendorff  watched  the  progress  of  the  develop- 
ment of  the  betrothed's  form,  Seckendorff  procured  a 
dancing  master  for  her,  old  Prince  Eugene  wished  that 
she1  had  a  more  artless  manner,  etwas  freieren  Humor, 
so  that  she  would  attract  and  retain  "  in  the  very  high 
imperial  interest,"  the  one  who  was  going  to  be  Freder- 
ick the  Great.    What  nonsense! 

As  to  the  King  of  Prussia,  he  maliciously  married  his 
son.  He  wished  to  get  rid  of  him  as  he  did  Wil- 
helmina,    but  if  it  was   his   right  as  father  and  king  to 


THE    MARRIAGE    OF    FREDERICK.  419 

interdict  any  marriage  that  would  injure  the  interests  of 
the  crown,  this  forced  marriage  was  an  odious  act  of 
paternal  tyranny. 

The  Crown  Prince  is  very  much  to  be  pitied,  since  he 
espouses  through  force,  a  woman  that  he  does  not  love; 
but  who  would  pity  him?  Neither  the  intrigue  of  which 
he  is  the  victim,  nor  the  impossibility  of  striving  against 
a  brutal  omnipotence,  excuses  the  absolute  submission 
expressed  to  the  king  by  him,  and  at  the  same  hour,  his 
request  to  Grumbkow  to  resist  for  him.  Not  once, 
either  by  speech  or  letter,  or  by  the  most  timid  insinua- 
tion, did  he  allow  the  king  to  see  his  true  sentiments. 
The  cause  was  certainly  worth  the  trouble.  It  did  not 
concern  him  alone;  it  also  concerned  a  woman;  but  the 
prince  thought  he  must  first  marry,  and  then  he  would  see 
afterward.  In  the  sequel,  he  also  counted  upon  aveng- 
ing himself  on  the  Emperor,  but,  in  the  meantime,  he 
takes  the  Austrian  gold  and  asks  for  more;  he  is  meek 
in  his  letters  to  Seckendorff ;  he  humbly  expresses  his 
gratitude  toward  the  Prince  of  Savoy,  and  his  admira- 
tion for  the  grand  qualities  of  the  Emperor. 

He  talked  much,  while  this  crisis  of  the  marriage  was 
pending,  and  his  words  have  been  preserved;  we  have 
many  letters  that  he  wrote.  Not  one  of  the  lamenta- 
tions he  utters  comes  from  the  heart.  He  rails,  he 
ridicules  wonderfully  well;  I  would  rather  see  him  shed 
tears.  The  day  of  his  betrothal  a  tear  did  come  to  his 
eye.  I  should  rather  wish  it  to  have  been  from  sorrow, 
but  I  can  not  believe  it.  If  one  could  only  consider  that 
his  mockery  of  love,  his  obscenities  upon  marriage, 
so    painful    to    hear   from    the    lips    of    so    young    a 


420  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

man,  were  only  the  ways  of  turning  a  phrase,  imi- 
tations of  France  or  Italy,  reminiscences  of  theatrical 
erudition!  But,  apart  from  the  style  and  the  borrowed 
French  manner  of  treating  serious  things,  there  yet 
remains  an  alarming  something,  which  emanates 
only  from  him.  One  must  not  handle  the  French 
raillery  except  with  precaution.  In  the  dramas  of 
Moliere,  to  which  Frederick  refers  his  betrothed,  there 
is  upon  the  subject  of  love  and  marriage,  a  seriousness, 
even  tears;  this,  it  seems  to  me,  he  did  not  see. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


CONCLUSION. 


The  27th  of  June,  1733,  the  Crown  Prince  and  the 
princess  were  solemnly  married  at  Berlin.  Before  the 
Kopenick  gate,  were  assembled  for  the  annual  review  four 
regiments  of  cavalry,  eleven  regiments  of  infantry,  and 
the  corps  of  Hussars.  The  princess  who  was  in  an  open 
carriage  with  the  queen,  was  a  spectator  of  the  various 
exercises;  the  king,  who  was  riding  on  horseback  near 
the  carriage,  explained  them  to  her.  All  the  army  defiled 
before  the  royal  party  and  then  the  cortege,  composed 
of  sixty  carriages  wxith  six  horses  attached  to  each, 
entered  the  city. 

A  few  weeks  afterward,  the  Crown  Prince  set  out  for 
Neu-Ruppin,  (a  little  town  situated  ten  miles  from  Ber- 
lin, where  he  was  established  in  April,  1733,  two  months 
before  his  marriage,)  and  there  took  command  of  the 
regiment  of  infantry  that  his  father  had  given  him.  In 
the  spring  of  the  following  year,  his  father  presented  him 
with  the  estate  of  Rheinsberg,  situated  near  the  Meck- 
lenburg frontier.  The  prince  immediately  ordered  the 
work  of  repairing  the  castle,  which  was  in  ruins,  and  the 
gardens,  which  had  been  abandoned  for  a  long  time.  He 
prepared  the  residence  where  he  was  to  wait,  "until  God," 
as  Seckendorft  said,  "would  change  his  condition." 

He  will  be  very  happy  at  Rheinsberg;  he  was  so 
already  at  Neu-Ruppin.    For  the  first  time,  he  felt  that  he 

421 


422  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

was  at  home,  far  from  "Jupiter,"  and  he  had  a  taste,  in 
virtue  of  the  adage;  Procul  a  Jove,  procul  a  falmltie,  of 
the  feeling  of  perfect  security.  He  arranged  his  way  of 
living  very  much  as  he  liked,  and  this  life  appeared  good 
to  him.      He  called  Neu-Ruppin  the  "dear  garrison." 

Frederick  is  entering  upon  a  new  period  of  life;  we 
will  soon  follow  him  I  hope;  but  the  reader  no  doubt  is 
of  the  opinion  that  we  have  already  learned  much  about 
the  personality  of  the  Crown  Prince. 

This  young  man  is  handsome,  refined,  and  delicate; 
the  excessive  fatigues,  heavy  wines,  coarse  nourishment, 
and  the  uncouth  vulgarisms  that  his  father  loved,  were 
repugnant  to  him.  His  taste  was  directed  only  toward  the 
pleasures  of  the  intellect;  his  inquiring  turn  of  mind  is 
interested  in  everything.  Some  say  to-day  that  he  was 
an  "intellectualist." 

The  religious  beliefs  make  no  impression  upon  his 
soul.  At  twelve  years  of  age,  he  writes  his  "Manner  of 
Living  of  the  Prince  of  a  Great  House,"  which  is  entirely 
evangelical;  at  fifteen,  he  signs  himself  "Frederick 
The  Philosopher."  God  and  religion  are  soon  to  be  for 
him  but  obliging  terms  of  royal  phraseology. 

He  has  no  kind  of  morality.  At  fourteen,  he,  fore- 
seeing the  death  or  confinement  of  his  father,  plots  with 
the  foreign  ministers,  to  whom  he  makes  such  confidences 
that  they  dare  not  trust  them  to  writing.  He  is  in 
friendly  intercourse  and  intimacy  with  governments  that 
the  king  considers  his  enemies.  The  abominable  treat- 
ment that  he  received  does  not  excuse  his  conduct;  his 
conduct  on  the  contrary  partly  explains  his  father's  cru- 
elty. 


CONCLUSION.  423 

He  has  no  generosity.  The  word  generosity  is  not 
once  pronounced,  not  even  by  those  witnesses  of  his  life, 
who  judge  him  with  the  greatest  benevolence.  He  loves 
his  mother  and  sister,  but  they  think  and  intrigue  with 
him.  He  loves  his  friends,  and  goes  so  far  as  to  speak 
of  them  in  a  peculiar  tone  of  ardent  tenderness,  but 
friendship  is  not  merited  until  a  return  of  sacrifices  is 
made  for  the  joys  which  spring  from  it.  Would  Fred- 
erick have  shown  the  same  devotion  to  his  friends,  if 
they  had  claimed  it  ?  When  he  saw  Katte  pass  by  him, 
on  his  way  to  the  scaffold,  he  offered,  in  order  to  save 
him,  to  relinquish  his  crown,  and  even  to  die;  but  sev- 
eral weeks  after  the  tragedy,  sure  of  living  and  released 
from  his  prison,  he  is  "as  gay  as  a  lark." 

He  appears  to  have  felt  for  a  moment  a  sentiment 
which  resembled  love,  but  his  heart  was  not  entirely 
given  up  to  it;  it  is  the  head  of  a  scholar,  of  a  young 
man  of  letters  which  furnishes  the  rhetoric  and  the  poetry 
of  his  declarations  to  Madame  von  Wreech.  He  feels  no 
pleasure  in  the  company  of  women;  he  does  not  love 
them.  He  only  wishes  pleasure,  "enjoyment,"  and  after 
that,  he  "despises"  them.  The  ideal  wife  that  he 
described  nearly  resembles  a  public  character.  Love  with 
this  young  man  is  but  a  vice;  or  perhaps  merely  a  pre- 
tention to  vice.  A  close  observer  of  his  actions  states 
that  he  was  very  temperate.  Frederick's  manner  of 
talking  and  thinking  on  this  subject  of  love  then,  is  a 
result  or  an  indication  of  his  moral  deformity. 

Frederick  grew  up  in  the  midst  of  strange  surround- 
ings, in  a  tumult  of  villainous  passions,  in  the  company 
of  ministers  and  valets  sold  to  others  besides  their  mas- 


424  FREDERICK   THE    GREAT. 

ter,  in  an  atmosphere  of  gossip,  of  spying,  and  intriguing 
in  the  uncleanliness  of  a  Court  where  perhaps  the  only 
honest  man  was  the  king.  He  never  felt  out  of  place. 
With  the  most  crafty,  he  played  a  finer  role,  he  was 
more  deceitful  than  any  of  them.  In  the  crisis  of  his 
marriage  he  alternates  between  refined  lying  and  the 
audacity  of  giving  expression  to  everything.  Assuredly 
the  tyranny  of  his  father  and  the  detestable  example  of 
his  unhealthy  environments  were  calculated  to  corrupt 
him,  but  nature  had  predestined  him  to  be  a  master  in 
the  art  of  duping  men. 

He  dissimulates  so  well  that  he  hides  from  all  the 
world  a  certain  Frederick  within  him,  that  his  father 
longed  for  and  would  have  adored.  He  calls  his  uniform 
a  shroud;  when  his  father  constrains  him  to  learn  his 
calling  of  prince  in  the  Chamber  of  Domains  at  Custrin, 
he  affects  in  his  letters  such  an  extraordinary  amount  of 
zeal,  by  means  of  such  extravagant  expressions,  that  the 
king  can  not  help  suspecting  his  hypocrisy.  He  would 
have  been  confirmed  in  this  sentiment,  if  he  had  known 
in  what  a  disdainful  tone  the  prince  was  speaking  of 
economy  and  treated  of 

"La  chambre  et  les  commissaires 

Qui  font  le  metier  des  corsaires." 

The  truth, — which  is  shown  later,  —is  that  the  prince 
is  an  excellent  colonel,  and  manages  his  regiment  as  well 
as  any  of  them;  that  the  lessons  of  Major  Senning  upon 
military  art  were  given  to  a  mind  the  most  capable  of 
loving,  comprehending,  practicing  and  surpassing  them; 
that  "  the  young  auscultatory  of  the  Chamber  of  Cus- 
trin has  quickly  comprehended   all   "economy."     He  is 


CONCLUSION.  425 

sure  to  possess  the  art  of  reigning,  and  dreams  already 
of  the  means  of  applying  it  to  the  detriment  of  others. 
He  sees  the  whole  future  of  politics  and  war,  his  whole 
reign  and  the  whole  destiny  of  Prussia. 

He  drew  a  large  profit  from  the  cruelty  and  despotism 
of  his  father.  Half  by  nature  and  half  by  boastfulness 
he  glided  into  a  dilletantism;  for  a  prince,  heir  to 
such  a  State,  he  loved  his  books,  his  flute  and  his 
dressing  gown  too  much.  He  dressed  and  arranged 
his  hair  petit  maitre  style,  did  not  carry  himself  well, 
drifted  along,  was  unconstrained.  Undoubtedly  the 
soldier  and  the  man  of  State  which,  in  him  awaited  the 
hour,  would  have  met,  had  chance  not  willed,  that 
Frederick,  nearly  upon  the  morrow  of  his  accession, 
had  to  put  into  motion  his  innate  and  acquired  pow- 
ers. It  did  not  find  him  in  complete  readiness.  His 
first  victory  was  a  singular  adventure;  he  fled  from 
the  battle  field  of  Molwitz,  so  quickly  and  so  far 
that  he  only  learned  the  next  morning  of  the  victory 
carried  off  by  his  infantry,  which  his  father  had  drilled 
and  which  did  not  know  how  to  fly.  From  his  own 
avowal,  he  is  instructed  in  the  school  of  his  own  faults. 
Would  he  have  been  surprised,  by  the  flying  hour  of 
opportunity,  if  he  had  not  employed  his  youth  in 
reading  poetry  and  playing  duets  with  his  sister  Wil- 
helmina? 

The  resemblance  to  his  father,  that  he  concealed 
and  denied,  appears  when  he  becomes  master.  Fred- 
erick William  is  represented  in  Frederick  II.,  but 
Frederick  II.  has  the  genius,  which  was  lacking  in 
the    father,    and    we    have    perceived   the  first    rapid, 


426  FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 

short  flashes  of  it.  He  has  intelligence  and  a  taste 
for  letters  and  the  problems  of  philosophy.  The 
" Muses"  charm  and  console  him,  and  make  him  think 
and  speak  of  life  like  an  ancient  sage ;  they  contribute 
to  the  strength  of  his  mind.  We  have  found  in  this 
young  man  a  combination  of  epicurean  and  stoic  which 
will  again  be  discovered  in  the  king,  and  this  together 
with  his  genius,  his  virtues  as  a  prince,  his  defects  and 
vices,  his  contempt  for  all  law,  the  cynicism  of  his 
perfidy,  the  sensibility  of  a  humanitarian  and  yet  the 
inhumanity  indispensable  to  leaders  of  men,  all  coming 
from  the  head,  not  the  heart,  will  unite  to  form — 

The  Great  Frederick. 


end. 


NOTES. 


1.  Due  de  Broglie,  Frederic  II.  et  Marie  The'rese,  vol.  I.,  pp. 

30  and  43. 

2.  I  propose  to  publish  a  history  of  Frederick,  from  his  mar- 

riage to  his  accession.  This  second  period  of  his  life  is 
very  different  from  the  first:  Frederick,  nearly  free, 
intermingles  politics  with  the  study  of  philosophy  and 
literature.  He  seizes  upon  ideas  and  plans.  It  is 
the  awakening  of  the  reign. 

3.  Among  these  works,  the  most  remarkable  is  that  of  Herr 

Reinhold  Koser,  Friedrich  der  Grosse  als  Kronprinz. 

4.  This  brochure  is  not  to  be  obtained.    I  herewith   express 

my  thanks  to  Her  Excellency,  Mme.  von  Borcke,  who 
kindly  sent  me  a  copy. 

5.  I  mention  this  edition  as  it  is  the  easiest  to  procure.    I 

have  said,  in  the  course  of  this  book,  how  far  and  with 
what  precaution  these  Memoirs  can  be  used.  I  intend 
to  resume  this  subject  in  a  critical  dissertation. 

6.  Albert  Waddington,    The  Acquisition  of  the   Crown  of 

Prussia  by  the  Hohenzollerns,  pp.  272  et  seq. 

7.  Preuss,  Friedrichs  des  Qrossen  Jugend    und   Thronbe- 

steigung,  pp.  4  and  5. 

8.  Letters  of  Frederick  I.  of  January  30, 1712,  in  the  Miscel- 

laneen  zur  Geschichte  Konig  Friedrichs  des  Grossen,  p. 
435  and  of  February  8,  and  May  31,  1712,  in  Preuss, 
Friedrich  der  Grosse,  mit  seinen  Verwandten  und 
Freunden,  p.  380. 

9.  See  Fassmann,  Leben  und  Thaten  des  Allerdurchlauch- 

tigsten  und  Grossmdchtigsien  Konigs  von  Preussen 
Friedrici  Wilhelmi,  the  funeral  ceremonies  of  Fred- 
erick I.,  pp.  42  et  seq,  and  Forster  loc.  cit.,  pp.  71  et  seq. 

10.  Koser,  Friedrich  der  Grosse  als  Kronprinz,  vol.  I.,  p.  2. 

11.  Koser,  op.  cit.,  pp.  2-5;  Bratuscheck  Die  Erziehung  Fried- 

richs des  Grossen,  pp.  20  et  seq. 

12.  Upon  Duhan,  see  the  academical  eulogy  that  Frederick 

made  to  him,  Works  of  Frederick  the  Great,  vol.  VII., 
pp.  8  et  seq. 

13.  Upon  Naude,  see  Formey,  Eulogy  on  the  Academicians  of 

Berlin,  vol.  I.,  pp-  270  et  seq. 

427 


428  NOTES. 

14.  Upon  La  Croze,  see  Formey,  op.  cit.,  II.,  pp.63  et  seq.,  and 

the  letter  of  Frederick  to  Voltaire,  Works  of  Frederick 
the  Great,  vol.  XXI.,  p.  327. 

15.  See,  vol.  XVI.,  of  the  Works  of  Frederick  the  Great,  the 

correspondence  of  Frederick  with  "  dear,  good  Mamma" 
Rocoulle,  and  the  following  note  in  verse,  written  by 
Mme.  de  Rocoulle,  after  the  accession  of  Frederick,  (she 
was  then  82  years  old): 

Sur  Fair:    Mariez-moi. 

Gaudias  est  un  bon  soldat, 

Mais  il  hait  le  ceUibat. 

II  vient  vous  prier 

De  le  lui  accorder. 

II  voudrait  se  marier 

Pour  vous  faire  un  grenadier. 

16.  Waddington,  pp.  283  et  seq. 

17.  Bratuscheck,  p.  2. 

18.  See,  upon  Fink  and  Kalkstein,  Friedrich  Cramer,  Zur 

Geschichte  Friedrich  Wilhelms  und  Friedrichs  II., 
pp.  39  et  seq.  I  have  only  at  hand  the  2d  edition  of  this 
work  (Leipsic  1833). 

19.  See,  upon  Anhalt,  the  article  in  the  Allgemeine  deutsche 

Biographie,  and  Carlyle,  History  of  Frederick  the  sec- 
ond, called  Frederick  the  Great,  book  IV.,  chap.  ii. 

20.  The  Instruction  of  Frederick  I.  (1695)  is  in  Forster  pp.  77 

et  seq. ;  the  Instruction  of  Frederick  William  (August 
1718),  in  Cramer,  pp.  3  et  seq.  Upon  the  comparison  of 
the  two  documents.    Forster,  pp.  354  et  seq. 

21.  Forster,    chapter    already  quoted,    Friedrich  Wilhelm  I. 

als  Kronprinz. 

22.  The  regulation  which  follows  is  posterior  to  the  Instruc- 

tion. I  quote  it  here,  because  it  ends  in  giving  an  idea 
of  the  way  in  which  Frederick  William  wished  his  son 
reared.  It  is  published  in  Cramer,  pp.  20  et  seq.  under 
the  title:  Das  Reglement,  wei  mein  dltester  Sohn  Fried- 
rich seine  Studien  zu  Wusterhausen  halten  Soil.  The 
date  given  by  Cramer  (October  4,  1720)  is  corrected  by 
Koser,  pp.  6  and  7,  and  the  Appendix,  p.  223. 

23.  Ranke,  Zwolf  Biieher  preussischer  Geschichte,  vol  XXVII., 

of  the  Sdmmtliche  Werke,  p.  80. 

24.  Forster,  chap,  quoted,   Friedrich    Wilhelm  I.,  als  Kron- 

prinz. 

25.  Memoirs  of  the  Margravine  of  Baireuth,  3d  edition  (1888), 

pp.  6,  7,  and  17. 


NOTES.  429 

26.  Ranke,  loc.  cit.,  p.  82  and  note  1.    Letters  of  Frederick  to 

his  father,  July  27, 1717 ;  February  25,  October  7,  14,  21, 
1719;  June  11,  October  8  and  31,  1720;  July  12,  and 
A  ugust  25, 1721,  in  the  Works  of  Frederick  the  Great, 
vol.  XXVII.,  3d  part,  pp.  3  et  seq. 

27.  Cramer,  pp.  25  and  26 ;  the  quotation  at  the  end  is  in  Ger- 

man. 

28.  This  note,  in  French,  is  in  Cramer,  following  The  way  the 

Prince  of  a  Great  House  Should  Live. 

29.  The  note  of  Duhan  and    the  marginal  responses  of   the 

King  are  in  French.     Cramer,  pp.  51-3. 

30.  Bratuscheck,  p.  27,  and  note  46,  p.  113. 

31.  Tagebuch  Heinrichs  de  Catt  (Publicationen  aus  den  K. 

preussischen  Archiven),  p.  404. 

32.  The  reign  of  Frederick  William  I.  still  awaits  an  historian. 

Professor  Schmoller  has  treated  of  the  most  important 
part  of  the  administration  of  this  prince  (cities,  com- 
merce, industry,  finance,  the  army  and  colonization),  in 
some  very  profound  matter  from  which  several  excerpts 
have  been  published,  notably  the  Preussische  Jahr- 
bucher,  the  Zeitschrift  fur  preussische  Geschichte  und 
Landeskunde,  the  Deutsche  Rundschau,  the  Jahrbuch 
fur  Gesetzgebung.  Verwalting  und  Volkswirthschaft 
im  deutschen  Reiche.  See,  upon  all  these  works,  an 
article  signed  R.  K.  (Reinhold  Koser),  in  the  Historische 
Zeitschrift,  vol.  LVII,  p.  488. 

33.  The  instruction  is  in  Forster,  vol.  II,  pp.  173  et  seq.    See 

Ranke,  pp.  168  et  seq. 

34.  These  prescriptions  upon  the  dinner   are  in   a  Cabinet 

order,  Forster,  II.,  255. 

35.  The  quotations  in  this  part  of  the  chapter,  with  the  ex- 

ception of  those  borrowed  from  Ranke,  are  taken  from 
the  ordinance. 

36.  Upon  the  army  during  the  reign  of  Frederick  William, 

see  Schmoller's  article  (Die  Entstehung  des  preussischen 
Heeres  (1640-1740),  in  the  Deustche  Rundchau  (XII, 

1877). 

37.  He  consented  to  wait  until  March;  he  wrote  then  at  the 

bottom  of  the  order  to  send  the  woman  and  child: 
"Hurry;  now  it  is  good  weather."    Forster,  II,  p.  300. 

38.  Conversation  at  table  reported  by  La  Che'tardie,  French 

Minister  at  Berlin,  Archives  of  the  Ministry  of  Foreign 
Affairs  of  France,  Prussia,  December,  24,  1735.  I  will 
henceforth  indicate  the  documents  borrowed  from  these 
Archives  thus:  F.  A.,  and  the  date  of  the  day  and  year. 


430  NOTES. 

The  volumes  of  the  diplomatic  correspondence  of  the 
Archives  of  Foreign  Affairs  (France)  bear  the  date  of 
the  year  on  the  back.  When  the  documents  are  taken 
from  a  Supplement,  mention  will  be  made  of  it. 

39.  Analysis  of  the    Cantonreglement    of    1733,   in  Forster, 

vol.  II.,  p.  309. 

40.  Ranke,  p.  159. 

41.  The  Instruction  for  the  Crown  Prince,  on  his  repairing  to 

the  army,  is  given  in  Forster,  I.,  pp.  397  et  seq. 

42.  Sauveterre,  Charge  'd  Affaires  of  France.    F.  A.  Prussia, 

March  25, 1732. 

43.  Royal  Order  to  the  Chiefs  of  the  Regiments,  February  10, 

1738  Forster,  II.,  315. 

44.  Dispatches  from  Rottenburg,  F.  A.,  Prussia,  Feb.  19,  April 

31,  May  14,  Aug.  13,  Oct.  15,  1726;  Jan.  18,  June  1,  1727; 
from  Sauveterre,  March  21,  1730;  from  La  Chetardie, 
Jan.  4,  1734;  Nov.  29, 1735. 

45.  Dispatches  from  Rottenburg,  F.  A.,  Prussia,  Feb.  19,  1726; 

April  15  and  19,  June  3  and  10,  1727;  from  Sauveterre, 
Jan.  8, 1730;  from  La  Chetardie,  June  12,  1734. 

46.  Dispatch  from  La  Chetardie,  F.  A.,  Prussia,  June  12, 1734. 

47.  Declarations  of  this  kind  are  very  frequent  in  the  conver- 

sations of  Frederick  William.  See  the  correspondence 
of  Seckendorff  with  the  Court  of  Vienna,  Forster,  vol. 
II.,  second  part. 

48.  Conversation  of  the  Prussian  Ministers  with  Rottenburg, 

F.  A.,  Prussia,  March  8, 1726. 

49.  Rottenburg,  F.  A.,  Prussia,  Feb.  18,  1727;  La  Chetardie, 

Aug.  29,  Sept.  3,  Oct.  15,  1733;  Jan.  29,  1735. 

50.  Conversation  of  Frederick  William  with  Rottenburg,  F. 

A.,  Prussia,  Oct.  20, 1725. 

51.  Idem,  ibidem. 

52.  Rottenburg,  F.  A.,  Prussia,  March  11, 1727;  La  Chetardie, 

Feb.  3, 1733. 

53.  Rottenburg,  F.  A.,  Prussia,  Jan.  15,  and  April  15,  1727;  La 

Chetardie,  Dec.  21, 1733;  Sept.  14,  1735. 

54.  Sauveterre,  F.  A.,  Prussia,  Dec.  27,  1729. 

55.  Rottenburg,  F.  A.,  Prussia,  Feb.  19,  and  June  21,  1726; 

Sauveterre,  Aug.  28, 1731. 

56.  Sauveterre,  F.  A.,  Prussia,  April  7,  23  and  29,  1726;  Aug. 

28,  1731;  La  Chetardie,  Aug.  23,  1732;  March  31, 1733. 

57.  Conversation  reported  by  the  King  to  La  Chetardie,  F. 

A.,  Prussia,  Dec.  21,  1733. 


NOTES.  431 

58.  Rottenburg,   F.   A.,   Prussia,   June  28,   1726:  Sauveterre, 

Aug.  26,  1727. 

59.  Rottenburg,  F.  A.,  Prussia,  March  26,  1726;  Sauveterre, 

May  27, 1730;  La  Chetardie,  April  27,  1734,  etc.,  etc. 

60.  F.  A.,  Prussia,  Supplement,  vol.  LXXVL,  p.  101. 

61.  La  Chetardie,  F.  A.,  Prussia,  Aug.  23, 1732. 

62.  Rottenburg,   F.  A.,   Prussia,   March   29,   Sept.  27,  Oct.  8, 

1726;  May  30,  1727;  Feb.  3,  1733. 

63.  The   original,   often   copied,     of    a  portrait   of    Frederick 

William  by  Weidemann,  is  at  the  Palace  of  Berlin. 
The  noble  and  solemn  attitude  given  to  the  King  is  cer- 
tainly false.  In  the  Museum  of  the  Palace  of  Monbijou, 
in  one  of  the  cases  in  the  Gallery  of  Busts,  is  the  mort- 
uary mask  in  wax  of  Frederick  William.  This  mask 
bears  the  imprint  of  illness;  the  features  are  drawn,  the 
nose  thin;  the  face  enframed  by  a  ring  of  fat,  has  the 
cheeks  sunken  in.  Inconstancy  and  sharp  gruffness  are 
delineated  in  the  lower  part  of  the  face. 

64.  Sauveterre,  F.  A.,  Prussia,  Jan.  26  and  March  1, 1732; 

June  1,  1734. 

65.  Sauveterre,  F.  A.,  Prussia,  March  13,  1728. 

66.  Upon  the  kind  of  life  led  by  Frederick  William  there  are 

numerous  anecdotes,  but  they  are,  for  the  most  part, 
imaginary:  a  personage  as  extraordinary  as  he,  lent  a 
ready  charm  to  the  fantasy  of  the  collectors  of  ana. 
Legend  has  not  dealt  kindly  with  Frederick  William.  A 
critical  history  of  the  legends  in  regard  to  him  has  yet  to 
be  written.  I  have  taken  from  Fassmann  (work  cited) 
and  Forster,  art.  1st,  chapters  iii.,  iv.  and  vi.,  the  proved 
facts  and  most  probable  anecdotes. 

67.  The  order  of  the  expulsion  of  Wolf,  and   the  letters  to 

recall  him,  are  in  Forster,  II.,  pp.  353  et  seq. 

68.  Forster,  pp.  288  et  seq. 

69.  The  documents  quoted  upon  the  theatre  in  the  time  of 

Frederick  William  I.  are  in  Forster,  vol.  I.,  chap.  vi. 

70.  Sauveterre,  F.  A.,  Prussia,  Nov.  12,  1729;  La  Chetardie, 

May  5,  1733.  There  was  often  question  of  the  King's 
dinners  in  the  correspondence  of  Seckendorfr*  and  Prince 
Eugene. 

71.  Kramer,  Neue  Beitrdge  zur  Geschichte  A.  H.  Franclces, 

p.  170. 

72.  Rottenburg,  F.  A.,  Prussia,  Aug.  10,  1726. 

73.  Rottenburg,  F.  A.,  Prussia,  Dec.  28,  1726;  March  25,  1727; 

Sauveterre,  April  3,  1728;  March  1,  August  23,  1729; 
Jan.  13  and  20,  1731;  Feb.  9,  1732. 


432  NOTES. 

74.  Sauveterre,  F.  A.,  Prussia,  August  18,  1730. 

75.  Rottenburg,  F.  A.,  Prussia,  April  22,  1726;  June  21, 1727; 

Sauveterre,  March  25,  1732. 

76.  Forster,  vol.  II.,  pp.  339,  340,  342,  343. 

77.  Kramer,  Neue  Beitrdge,  pp.  178-9. 

78.  Kramer,  pp.  174  and  184.     This  journal  of  the  sojourn  of 

Francke  at  Wusterhausen,  written  by  him,  is  an  authen- 
tic document  of  great  interest.  For  the  projects  of 
retreat,  see  Memoirs  of  the  Margravine,  p.  83.  Several 
times  there  is  question  of  these  projects  in  the  corre- 
spondence of  the  French  Ministers. 

79.  Report  of  Suhm,  Minister  of  Saxony,  in  Von  Weber,  Aus 

vier  Jahrhunderten  (Neue  Folge),  vol.  I.,  p.  104. 

80.  Report  of  Seckendorff,  Forster,  II.,  2d  part,  p.  43,  and  dis- 

patches from  Rottenburg,  F.  A.  Prussia,  March  26, 
December  28,  1726;  April  26,  1727. 

81.  Koser,  p.  25,  and  the  corresponding  note  of  the  Appendix, 

225,  where  mention  is  also  made  of  the  first  debts  of 
Frederick. 

82.  Report  quoted  above,  p.  136  n.  1.,  from  Seckendorff. 

83.  Koser,  p.  8. 

84.  Kramer,  Neue  Beitrdge,  pp.  102-3. 

85.  Report  of  the  tutors,  Cramer,  Zur  Geschichte,  p.  32. 

86.  Rottenburg,  F.  A.,  Prussia,  March  26,  1726. . 

87.  Kramer,  Neue  Beitrdge,  pp.  166, 177, 182, 185. 

88.  See,  Brief e  Friedrich  des  Grossen  und  seiner  erlauchten 

Bruder  .  .  .  an  die  GebriXder  F.  W.  und  F.  L.  F.  von 
Borcke.    These  letters  are  written  in  French. 

89.  The  description  that  the  Margravine  gives  of  her  mother 

(p.  15)  is  exact  enough.    See  Koser,  pp.  11-13. 

90.  Francke  remarks  that  when  the  Queen  presides  at  table, 

in  the  absence  of  the  King,  she  speaks  "oftener  in 
French." 

91.  Forster,  I.,  p.  350. 

92.  Memoirs  of  the  Margravine,  p.  95  et  seq. 

93.  Order  of  the  King,  Forster,  I.,  p.  225. 

94.  Words  of  the  Queen  to  Grumbkow,  Forster.   III.,  p.  111. 

The  Queen  spoke  also  of  Monbijou  "  and  that  she  was 
very  much  in  debt." 

95.  Forster,  I.,  p.  348. 


NOTES.  433 

96.  It  is  very  legitimate  to  question  the  Margravine,  at  least 

in  regard  to  herself.  Upon  a  criticism  of  the  Memoirs, 
see  Ranke,  Zur  Kritik  Preussischer  Memoiren,  vol. 
XXIV.,  of  his  Sdmmtliche  WerJce ;  Droysen,  Geschichte 
der  Preussischen  Politik  (IV.,  4);  Pierson,  Konig  Fried- 
rich  Wilhelm  I.,  von  Preussen,  in  den  Denkwiirdigkeiten 
der  Markgrdfin  Wilhelmine  von  Baireuth. 

97.  Memoirs  of  the  Margravine,  pp.  33  et  seq. 

98.  Seckendorff,  in  a  report  to  Prince  Eugene,  Forster,  III., 

339,  confesses  his  admiration  for  this  behaviour. 

99.  Memoirs  of  the  Margravine,  pp.  45  et  seq. 

100.  Memoirs  of  the  Margravine,  pp.  2  and  3. 

101.  Memoirs  of  the  Margravine,  p.  28. 

102.  Kramer,  Neue  Beitrdge,  p.  165. 

103.  Upon  the  marriages,  see  the  correspondence  of  Secken- 

dorff with  Prince  Eugene,  in  Forster,  vol  II.,  2d  part 
(Urkundenbuch),  and  vol.  III.,  from  p.  75;  extracts  from 
reports  of  the  Ministers  of  Prussia  at  London,  in 
Raumer,  Beitrdge  zur  Neueren  Geschichte  III.,  pp.  493 
etseq.  I  referred  principally  to  the  unpublished  corre- 
spondence of  the  French  Ministers  at  Berlin,  F.  A.,  Prus- 
sia, years  1725  to  1732.  See  Koser,  pp.  14,  et  seq ;  Ranke, 
pp.  91  et  seq. 

104.  La  Chetardie,  who  had  never  seen  "so  many  excellencies 

in  such  a  small  place,"  draws  the  portraits  of  the  Min- 
isters of  Prussia;  among  them  he  counts  Seckendorff, 
F.  A.,  Prussia,  Oct.  11,  1732. 

105.  The  whole  correspondence  of   Seckendorff  is  filled  with 

these  unscrupulous  negotiations.    See  Koser,  p.  15. 

106.  Upon  Grumbkow,  see  the  dispatch  of  La  Chetardie,  Oct. 

11,  1732,  quoted  above. 

107.  Forster  II.,    Urkundenbuch,  p.  138. 

108.  Dispatches  from  Rottenburg,   F.  A.,  Prussia,  April  1,  2, 

1725;  October  8,1726;  July  15,1727;  from  Sauveterre, 
Nov.  9,  10,  and  Dec.  27, 1727.  The  dispatch  wherein  Rot- 
tenburg relates  his  conversation  with  the  King  in  the 
garden  at  Wusterhausen  (Oct.  8,  1726)  is  very  curious. 
The  King  confesses  to  Seckendorff  himself  the  desire 
he  had  for  the  marriages:  "It  is  true  I  have  been 
a  good  Hanoverian  on  account  of  the  marriage  ..." 
Forster,  III.,  339. 

109.  Rottenburg,  F.  A.,  Prussia,  Oct  3,  1725  ;  Feb.  2, 1726. 

110.  Rottenburg,  F.  A.,  Prussia,  April  19,  May  24,  1726  ;  Sauve- 

terre, Oct.  8, 1727. 


434  NOTES. 

111.  Rottenburg,  F.  A.,  Prussia,  May  29, 1726 :  Sauveterre,  Oct. 

8, 1727. 

112.  Upon  the  family  scenes,  Rottenburg,  F.  A.,  Prussia,  Oct. 

20,  30,  1725;  Feb.  21,  April  19,  June  21,  Aug.  12, 1726. 

113.  Rottenburg,  F.  A.,  Prussia,  June  21,  and  Oct.  19,  1726: 

Mar.  8.  and  June  21,  1727. 

114.  Idem,  July  16, 1726. 

115.  Rottenburg,  F.  A.,  Prussia,  May  25,  1726. 

116.  Rottenburg,  F.  A.,  Prussia,  Nov.  12  and  26, 1726. 

117.  Idem,  Dec.  3. 1726;  June  1,  and  July  12, 1727. 

118.  Rottenburg,  F.  A.,  Prussia,  Nov.  12,  and  Dec.  5,  1726. 

119.  Seep.  136. 

120.  Seckendorff  is  posted  about  everything,  as  all  of  his  cor- 

respondence proves.  See,  for  example,  a  very  interesting 
dispatch  to  Prince  Eugene,  of  Jan.  22,  1727,  Forster, 
III.,  333  et  seq. 

121.  F.  A.,  Prussia,  Aug.  1,  Dec.  26, 1726. 

122.  Bratuscheck,  op.  cit.,  p.  34. 

123.  Brief e  Fr.  des  Gr.  an  F.  W.  und   F.  L.  F.  von  Borcke 

p.  10. 

124.  Bratuscheck,  op.  cit.,  pp.  39  et  seq.  and  the  notes. 

125.  Sauveterre,  F.  A.,  Prussia,  Jan.  17, 1728. 

126.  Sauveterre,  F  A.,  Prussia,  Feb.  3,  1728 ;  and  Bratuscheck, 

pp.  34-5. 

127.  Koser,  in  the  Appendix,  225. 

128.  Memoirs  of  the  Margravine,  p.  101. 

129.  Memoirs  of  the  Margravine. 

130.  Brief e  Fr.  des.  Gr.,  pp.  12  et  seq. 

This,  as  well  as  all  of  Frederick's  writing  in  this  book,  is 
in  bad  French.  Voltaire  said  (I  quote  from  Edward 
Everett),  that  "there  was  not  a  sentence  which  you 
would  not  know  to  be  the  language  of  a  foreigner." 
And  this  referred,  of  course,  to  a  still  later  period. 
Translator. 

131.  Works  of  Frederick  the  Great,  vol.  XXVII.,  3d  part,  pp.  9 

and  10. 

132.  Report  of  Suhm,  Droysen,  IV.,  pp.  398-401. 

133.  Later,  we  find  Keyserlingk  among  Frederick's  most  in- 

timate friends.  This  young  officer  had  a  brilliant 
mind ;  after  his  studies  at  the  University  of  Konigsburg 
he  had  traveled.  The  King,  in  placing  near  the  Prince, 
as  he  said,  this  "  alert "  young  man,  certainly  wanted  to 
give  his  son  pleasure. 


NOTES.  435 

134.  Koser,  pp.  24-5. 

135.  For  documents  relative  to  the  marriage,  see  p.  159,  note  1. 

136.  Koser,  pp.  31-32. 

137.  Sauveterre,  F.  A.,  Prussia,  Feb.  7,  1729 ;    a  long  dispatch 

wherein  is  a  complete  resume  of  the  resumption  of  the 
marriage  negotiations. 

138.  At  the  same  time  of  the  dispatches  from  Sauveterre  fol- 

low those  of  the  Ministers  of  England,  Raumer,  Neue 
Beitrdge,  loc.  cit.  The  Queen  is  the  principal  source  of 
information.  She  tells  everything,  even  the  most  pri- 
vate scenes. 

139.  Sauveterre,  F.  A.,  Prussia,  Dec.  17  and  20,  1729;  Jan.  14, 

Mar.  4  and  19.  Apr.  8,  1730.  The  menace,  "  to  turn  all 
Europe  upside  down,"  is  in  a  letter  addressed  to  "a 
person  in  the  city,  of  which  Sauveterre  gives  a  copy. 

140.  Sauveterre,  F.  A.,  Prussia  Aug.  13  and  30,  1729.    Jan.  3 

and  15,  Feb.  4  and  28,  Aug.  13, 1730.    Memoirs  of  the 
Margravine,  years  1729  and  1730,  notably  pp.  140,  141, 150. 

141.  Sauveterre,  F.  A.,  Prussia,  Feb.  7, 1729. 

142.  Memoirs  of  the  Margravine,  p.  123. 

143.  F.  A.,  Prussia,  1730. 

144.  Memoirs  of  the  Margravine,  pp.  110, 133, 134. 

145.  Koser,  pp.  25,  26. 

146.  Memoirs  of  the  Margravine,  pp.  129,  130. 

147.  Memoirs  of  the  Margravine,  p.  132.    All  these  scenes  are 

most  likely  to  have  occurred.    See  also  pp.  151  and  152. 

148.  Sauveterre,  F.  A..  Prussia,  June  25,  Dec.  6, 1729  ;  Feb.  15, 

1730.    Koser,  pp.  29  and  30. 

149.  F.  A.,  Prussia,  July  8  and  15, 1728. 

150.  Memoirs  of  the  Margravine,  pp.  156,  157. 

151.  Koser,  in  the  Appendix,  pp.  226,  227. 

152.  Memoirs  of  the  Margravine,  pp.  138, 139. 

153.  Memoirs  of  the  Margravine,  and  Sauveterre,  F.  A.,  Prus- 

sia, Jan,  25,  and  Feb.  7,  1730. 

154.  This  strange  scene  was  related  by  Hotham  to  Sauveterre 

(F.  A.,  Prussia,  April  8,)  who  was  kept  informed  by 
Hotham,  Du  Bourgay  and  Cnyphausen  of  all  that  hap- 
pened during  Hotham's  stay.  See  the  English  dis- 
patches in  Raumer,  Neue  Beitrdge,  loc.  cit.,  and  Carlyle, 
book  VII. 

155.  Sauveterre,  F.  A.,  Prussia,  April  8, 1730. 


436  NOTES. 

156.  Dispatches  of  Grumbkow  and  Reichenbach,  in  Carlyle, 

book  VII.,  2. 

157.  Memoirs  of  the  Margravine,  pp.  165, 166. 

158.  Sauveterre,  F.  A.,  Prussia,  April  8, 1730. 

159.  Sauveterre,  F.  A.,  Prussia,  April  22. 

160.  Dispatch  from  Hotham,  April  5.    Raumer,  loc.  cit. 

161.  Droysen,  op.  cit.,  IV.,  III.,  p.  89. 

162.  Hotham,  April  25, 1730,  Raumer,  loc.  cit. 

163.  Correspondence  of  the  month  of  April,  1730,  Carlyle,  loc. 

cit. 

164.  Correspondence  of  the  month  of  May,  ibid.,  and  Sauve- 

terre, F.  A.,  Prussia,  May  26, 1730. 

165.  Letter  communicated  by  Hotham  to  his  Court,  Carlyle, 

loc.  cit. 

166.  Upon  these  fetes,  see  Carlyle,  VII.,  3. 

167.  Koser,  pp.  37,  38. 

168.  Sauveterre,  F.  A.,  Prussia,  July  11, 1730. 

169.  See  the  documents  of  the  affair,  in  Carlyle,  VII.,  4. 

170.  Sauveterre,  F.  A.,  Prussia,  July  15, 1730. 

171.  All  the  facts  of  this  Chapter  are  studied  with  a  remarkable 

exactitude  and  perfect  precision,  by  Koser  in  Chapter  II 
of  the  book  cited.  A  complete  bibliography  of  the  docu- 
ments is  given  by  him  in  the  Appendix,  pp.  236-242. 
These  documents  are  in  part  unedited:  the  Archives  of 
the  Royal  House  contain  seven  vols,  in-fol.  of  the  Acts 
of  the  trial  of  Frederick  and  his  accomplices,  which 
Koser  has  studied.  Among  the  published  documents, 
the  most  important  are  the  Informatio  ex  actis,  a  short 
resume  of  the  acts,  given  by  Preuss,  FriedricWs  des 
Grossen  Jugend  pp.  87-93,  and  above  all  the  Vollstdndige 
Protokolle  des  Kbpenicker  Kriegsgerichts  fiber  Kron- 
prinz  Friedrich,  Lieutenant  von  Katte  von  Kait  u.  s.  w., 
published  by  Danneil.  The  recitals  of  this  trial  estab- 
lish with  certitude  the  sequel  of  facts.  I  refer  once  for 
all  to  Koser's  chapter,  in  the  Informatio  and  Protokolle. 
I  will  indicate,  in  their  respective  places,  the  other  docu- 
ments used. 

172.  Dispatches  from  Hotham  and  Guy  Dickens,  June  16  and 

18, 1730.    Raumer,  pp.  516, 517. 

173.  Sauveterre,  F.  A.,  Prussia,  July  18, 1730. 

174.  See  statement  dictated  by  the  King  to  Mylius,  in  the 

Appendix  to  the  book  by  Koser  (pp.  261, 264). 


NOTES.  437 

175.  Report  of  Seckendorff  to  the  Emperor,  August  14,  1730, 

Forster,  III,  pp.  1  et  seq.  This  report  must  be  consulted 
for  the  whole  history  of  the  attempt  at  escape. 

176.  Guy  Dickens,  August  19,Raumer,  pp.  518,  519:  Sauveterre, 

F.  A..  Prussia,  August  21,  1830. 

177.  August  19, 1730,  Works  of  Frederick  the  Great,  XXVII, 

3rd  part,  p.  10. 

178.  Koser,  p.  49. 

179.  Guy  Dickens,  August  19,  in  Raumer,  pp.  518,  519;  Sauve- 

terre, F.  A.,  Prussia,  August  10,  1730. 

180.  There   is  a  legendary  story   about  the   arrest  of  Katte. 

Those  who  were  ordered  to  arrest  him,  gave  him  notice 
and  retarded  the  execution  of  the  Royal  Order,  so  as  to 
give  him  time  to  leave.  Katte  remained  for  various 
reasons,  that  Theodor  Fontane,  to  quote  him  only,  gives 
in  the  Wanderungen  durch  die  Mark  Brandenburg, 
vol.  II  (4th  edit),  pp.  307,  308.  Koser  dispels  this  legend 
(Appendix,  p.  232),  but  I  cannot  explain  to  myself  that 
Katte  could  have  been  able  to  destroy  papers  at  the  time 
of  his  arrest,  bei  der  Arrestirung,  as  the  Kopenick  trial 
stated. 

181.  The  Margravine  relates  (pp.  192  et  seq.)  that  a   casket, 

filled  with  letters  written  by  the  Queen,  Crown  Prince 
and  herself,  was  mysteriously  brought,  before  Katte's 
arrest,  to  the  house  of  Countess  Fink,  who  remitted 
it  to  the  Queen;  and  that  these  letters  were  destroyed 
by  the  Queen  and  herself,  and  replaced  by  others. 
Although  the  details  are  uncertain  the  fact  is  authentic; 
it  came  to  the  knowledge  of  Seckendorff. 

182.  The  scene  was  undoubtedly  a  most  violent  one.    Guy 

Dickens,  Sept.  3,  5,  1730;  Raumer,  p.  525,  and  Sauveterre, 
F.  A.,  Prussia,Sept.  7, 1730. 

183.  Preuss,  Urkundenbuch  zu  der  Lebensgeschichte  Friedrichs 

des  Grossen,  II,  pp.  156-7. 

184.  Sauveterre,  F.  A.,  Prussia,  Sept.  11, 1730.     See  Koser,  Ap- 

pendix, p.  233. 

185.  Sept.  7  and  8, 1730,  Preuss.     Urkundenbuch,   loc.  cit  pp. 

150, 151. 

186.  Sept.  19,  1730,  Urkundenbuch,  vol.  II,  p.  153. 

187.  Sept.  20,  22;  Oct.  5,  1730.     Preuss,    Urkundenbuch,  vol. 

II,  pp.  154  and  159. 

188.  Sept.  6, 1730,  Preuss,  Urkundenbuch,  vol.  II,  p.  150. 

189.  Order  to  the  Resident  at  Hamburg,  Sept.  27,  1730,  ibid.,  p. 

156.  Sauveterre,  F.  A.,  Prussia,  Sept.  11,  17,  1730.— 
Bratuschek,  pp.  53,  54. 


438  NOTES. 

190.  Guy  Dickens,  Sept.  7,  Raumer,  pp.  527-30. 

191.  Dispatch  of  the  Minister  of  Sweden  at  Berlin,  communi- 

cated from  Stockholm  to  Versailles,  F.  A.,  Prussia,  Oct. 
25,  1730. — See  also  Guy  Dickens,  Sept.  30,  Raumer,  p. 
541. 

192.  Guy  Dickens,  Oct.  3,  17,  21:  Raumer,  pp.  542-4;  Sauveterre, 

F.  A.,  Prussia,  Oct.  25, 1730. 

193.  Sauveterre,  F.  A.,  Prussia,  Sept.  7,  1730. 

194.  Communicated  by  Sauveterre,  F.  A.,  Prussia,  Sept.  26, 1730. 

195.  Guy  Dickens,  August  19,  Raumer,  p.  521. 

196.  Guy  Dickens,  Sept.  25,  1730,  Raumer,  p.  541. 

197.  The  reports  of  Guy  Dickens  and  Sauveterre,  in  Sept.  and 

Oct.  1730,  are  full  of  details  upon  the  attitude  of  Grumb- 
kow  and  Seckendorff. 

198.  Guy  Dickens,  Sept.  16, 1730,  Raumer,  loe.  cit,  pp.  522-4, 

reports  a  curious  conversation  of  Seckendorff  upon  King 
Frederick  William's  state  of  mind. 

199.  Letter  of  the  King  of  Sweden,  August  25, 1730,  in  Raumer, 

pp.  536,  537.  Letters  of  Degenfeld,  Sept.  19,  29;  Preuss, 
Urkundenbuch,  vol.  II.,  pp.  156-7  and  160. 

200.  Sauveterre,  F.  A.,  Prussia,  Sept.  27,  Oct.  3, 1730. 

201.  Preuss,  Urkundenbuch,  vol.  11,  p.  150. 

202.  The  Court  of  France  never  encouraged  Frederick's  flight. 

Sauveterre  writes,  it  is  true  (F.  A.,  Prussia,  July  18, 1730), 
that  at  the  time  of  the  departure  upon  the  journey  to 
Anspach,  a  "friend"  announced  to  him  the  intention  of 
the  Crown  Prince  to  fly  and  resort  to  France.  He 
answered  that  "  we  (France)  would  be  pleased  to  see  and 
take  care  of  him  and  that  he  would  be  well  received." 
He  referred  to  a  dispatch  from  his  Court:  "You  have 
remarked  the  same  thing  to  me,  in  one  of  your  letters." 
But  he  made  a  mistake.  The  dispatch  of  which  he 
speaks,  F.  A.,  Prussia,  Feb.  26,  1730,  was  written  in  re- 
sponse to  the  communication  made  by  Sauveterre,  ibid., 
Feb.  15,  of  a  projected  trip  of  the  Crown  Prince,  made 
with  the  consent  of  the  king.  It  states  therein:  "They" 
(France)  "would  have  liked  to  see  him."  It  would  have 
been  a  very  happy  thing,  had  he  visited  this  country 
earlier.  We  report  the  response  made  to  Rottenburg, 
when  he  spoke  of  the  projected  flight  of  Frederick.  See 
also  F.  A.,  Prussia,  Sept.  7,  1730,  the  dispatch  from 
Versailles:  "Whatever  may  be  the  affair  in  connection 
with  the  Prince  of  Prussia,  we  have  assuredly  taken  no 
part." 


NOTES.  439 

203.  Sauveterre,  F.  A.,  Prussia,  Sept.  23,  Oct.  3,  9,  1730;  Guy 

Dickens,  Sept.  30,  in  Raumer,  pp.  511-13;  the  King  to 
Degenfeld,  Oct.  14,  in  Preuss,  Urkundenbuch,  vol.  II., 
page  160;  Koser,  pp.  59  and  60. 

204.  Protokolle  des  Kopenicker  Gerichts  p.  34. 

205.  Words  of  the  King,  spoken   at  table,  ilber  offentlicher 

Tafel,  reported  by  Seckendorff,  Nov.  11,  1730.  Forster, 
III,  p.  15. 

206.  Protokolle  p.  35. 

207.  Protokolle  pp.  35,  36. 

208.  Fontane,  Wanderungen,  II.,  pp.  316-17. 

209.  Nov.  3,  1730.    Fdrster  III,  p.  14. 

210.  Koser,  in  the  Appendix,  pp.  236-37. 

211.  There  exists  a  report  upon  the  last  days  and  execution  of 

Katte,  addressed  by  Major  Schack  to  Lieutenant-general 
Katte,  the  greater  part  of  which  is  in  Fontane,  loc.  cit., 
pp.  317  et  seq.    I  analyse  this  report  here. 

212.  Fontane,  loc.  cit.,  pp.  318,  320. 

213.  This  sort  of  testament  destined  for  the  prince  is  inserted 

in  a  report  of  Pastor  Miiller  to  the  King,  Beitrag  zur 
Lebensgeschichte  Friedrichs  des  Grossen,  welcher  einen 
merkwurdigen  Brief  wechsel  ilber  den  ehemaligen  Auf- 
enthalt  des  gedachten  Konigs  zu  CiXstrin  enthdlt. 

214.  Sauveterre,  F.  A.,  Prussia,  Sept.  27,  and  Oct.  21,  1730. 

215.  Works  of  Frederick  the  Great,  XXVII,  1,  p.  3. 

216.  The  contemporaneous   documents  do   not  report  in   the 

same  way  the  words  of  Katte  to  the  Prince.  Guy  Dick- 
ens (Raumer,  p.  546),  and  Sauveterre,  who,  during  those 
days,  was  evidently  inspired  by  his  colleague  of  England, 
gives  this  dialogue:  "My  dear  Katte,  I  earnestly  beg 
your  pardon  for  having  brought  you  to  this  misfortune." 
"There  is  no  reason  why  Your  Highness  should  do  so. — 
Monseigneur  il  vCy  a  pas  de  quoi."  See  in  Koser,  Ap- 
pendix, pp.  237-41,  the  bibliography  of  the  execution  of 
Katte. — Katte  and  Frederick  spoke  in  French. 

217.  The  whole  narration  of  the  communications  of  the  Prince 

with  Miiller  are  founded  upon  the  curious  documents 
contained  in  the  brochure  already  cited  (p.  297,  No.  1). 
This  brochure  contains,  besides  the  letter  of  the  King 
which  is  about  to  be  quoted  here,  five  letters  of  Miiller 
to  the  King  (Nov.  6,  7,  8,  10,  14,)  and  three  letters  of  the 
King  to  Miiller  (Nov.  8,  12,  17). 


440  NOTES. 

218.  The  father  of  Katte,  in  a  heart-breaking  letter  to  one  of 

his  relatives,  gives,  among  his  reasons  for  consolation, 
the  following:  "Is  it  not  consoling  that  the  execution 
had  to  take  place  at  Custrin,  for  the  world  to  under- 
stand, why  my  son  had  to  be  sacrificed,  warum  er  ein 
Sacrifice ; "  Fontane,  loc.  cit.,  p.  238. 

219.  Reports  of  Seckendorff,  Oct.  9,  28,  31,  in  Forster  III,  pp.  9, 

10  and  12.  Letter  of  the  King  to  the  Emperor  in 
Preuss,  Urkundenbuch,  vol.  II,  p.  169,  to  his  ministers  at 
Vienna  and  St.  Petersburg,  in  the  Appendix  of  Koser, 
pp.  241-2. 

220.  The  "project"  for  the  pardon  of  the  Prince  by  Seckendorff 

is  in  Preuss,  Urkundenbuch,  loc.  cit.,  pp.  164-6. 

221.  Letter  of  the  King  of  Nov.  21,  1730,  analysed  in  Koser,  pp. 

71.  72. 

222.  Wo  er  ein  honet  home  wird  daran  ich  sehr  zweifle  ist  es 

vor  ihn  ein  Gluck.  Letter  of  Nov.  16,  1730,  Zeitschrift 
fur  preussische  Geschichte  und  Landeskunde  IX.,  p. 
594. 

223.  Hille  to  Grumbkow,  Dec.  19, 1730,  Koser,  p.  242.    The  cor- 

respondence of  Hille,  Wolden  and  Grumbkow  is  in 
French.  Frederick  always  wrote  in  French,  except  to 
his  father. 

224.  Koser,  p.  74. 

225.  The  King  to  Wolden,  Nov.  29,  Koser,  pp.  76-77.    The  words 

in  italics  in  the  King's  letter  are  in  French. 

226.  For  this  correspondence,  see  Koser,  pp.  77-78. 

227.  See,  for  this  coFrespondence,  Koser,  pp.  79-82,  and  Forster, 

III,  pp.  40  et  seq.,  ten  reports  of  Hille  and  Wolden  to 
Grumbkow. 

228.  Memorandum  of  Hille,  Dec.  1730,  Koser,  pp.  93-4  and  Ap- 

pendix, p.  247. 

229.  Wolden  to  Grumbkow,  April  28,  1731,  Forster  III,  41-2. 

230.  The  memorandum  of  the  Prince  is  of  January,  1731;  the 

letter  of  the  King,  February  2,  Koser,  p.  79. 

231.  For  this  correspondence,  Koser,  pp.  83-4.     The  last  letter 

of  the  King  is  dated  August  5. 

232.  This  whole  scene  is  related  in  a  protocol  written  the  next 

day,  by  Grumbkow  for  Seckendorff,  Forster  III.,  p.  50. 
Grumbkow  was  present  at  the  interview. 

2,33.  Instruction  for  Wolden,  Aug.  21, 1731,  Forster  I.,  pp.  386, 
et  seq. 

234.   Id.,  ibid. 


NOTES.  44:1 

235.  Hille   to  Grumbkow,  Aug.  20,  21,  1731,  Forster,   III.,  pp. 

58-9. 

236.  Grumbkow's  Instruction  for  the  Crown  Prince  of  Prussia, 

Forster,  III.,  pp.  54  et  seq.    This  document  is  in  French. 

237.  The  King  in  an  order,  Nov.  1730,  had  given  permission  for 

the  Berlin  and  Hamburg  journals,  and,  in  a  general  way, 
the  Intelligenzbldtter,  Koser,  Appendix,  p.  244. 

238.  Seckendorff  to  Prince  Eugene,  June  19, 1731,  Forster,  III., 

p.  75. 

339.    Koser,  Appendix,  pp.  265,  266. 

240.  Fontane.     Wanderungen,  Vol.  II.,  pp.  347  et  seq. 

241.  Correspondence  of  Frederick  with  Madame  von  Wreech, 

Works  of  Frederick  the  Great,  Vol.  XVI.,  pp.  9  et  seq.; 
Koser,  Appendix,  pp.  245-6;  Fontane;  pp.  369  et  seq. 

242.  The  Prince  to  the  King,  Aug.  18,  21,  1731.     Works  of  Fr. 

the  Great,  Vol.  XXVII.,  III.,  pp.  15-18. 

243.  Sept.  1, 1731,  ibid.,  pp.  21-2. 

244.  Sept.  8, 1731,  ibid.,  p.  23. 

245.  Sept.  22, 1731,  ibid.,  pp.  26,  27. 

246.  Sept.  29,  Oct.  6, 1731,  ibid.,  pp.  28-30. 

247.  This  letter  of  Aug.  28,  1731,  is  probably  the  first  which  was 

written  after  the  visit  of  the  King  to  Ctistrin;  it  follows 
up  the  sermon  of  Aug.  15;  Works  of  Frederick  the 
Great,  loc.  cit.,  pp.  18,  20. 

248.  This  part  of  the  Memoirs  of  the  Margravine  (year  1730) 

is  very  much  contested  by  Droysen  {loc.  cit.)  and  Pier- 
son,  Konig  Friedrich  Wilhelm  in  den  Denkwiirdigkeiten 
der  Markgrdfln  Wilhelmina  von  Baireuth.  Of  course 
there  are  to  be  found  in  it  many  exaggerations  and  a  few 
inventions,  but  there  still  remains  considerable  truth. 
I  have  taken  from  it  the  facts  which  appear  probable  to 
me  and  have  stated  the  numerous  and  important  places, 
where  the  testimony  of  Wilhelmina  has  been  confirmed 
by  others.  For  the  marriage  negotiations,  see  the  dis- 
patches of  Sauveterre,  F.  A.,  Prussia,  Dec.  2, 12,  30,  1730; 
Jan.  13,  16,  March  17,  May  15,  19,  June  2,  4,  17,  23,  July 
31,  Oct.  13,  Nov.  10  and  20,  1731. 

249.  Guy  Dickens  relates,  in  a  dispatch  May  19, 1731,  "  that  the 

King  threatened  to  shut  Sonsfeld  up  in  a  Magdalen 
Asylum,  if  she  did  not  make  Wilhelmina  obey  him," 
Raumer,  p.  559. 

250.  Sauveterre,  F.  A.,  Prussia,  May  19,  1731,  speaks  of  this 

scene,  after  which,  he  says,  that  the  Princess  remained 
three  days  without  food  or  drink. 


442  NOTES. 

251.  Guy  Dickens,  June  2,  3,  1731,  Raumer,  pp.  559-61.    Guy 

Dickens  relates,  in  the  same  dispatch,  the  scene  at  the 
review.  For  the  scene  at  dinner,  he  invokes  the  testi- 
mony of  those  present. 

252.  Guy  Dickens,  ibid. 

253.  Guy  Dickens,  ibid. 

254.  See  pp.  121-2  of  this  volume. 

255.  I  give  this  detail  because  I  believe  it  to  be  true,  strange  as 

it  may  be.  The  Queen  was  capable  of  such  aberrations. 
(See  p.  266,  her  proceedings  after  the  arrest  of  her  son). 
Wilhelmina  manifestly  invents  in  this  part  of  her  Me- 
moirs, the  story  of  the  couriers  arriving  from  England 
and  intercepted  or  retarded  by  Grumbkow.  But  the 
dispatchespf  Sauveterre,  F.  A.,  Prussia,  May  19,  June  21, 
Oct.  13,  1731,  prove  that  the  Queen  continued  to  nego- 
tiate at  London.  In  the  dispatch  of  Oct.  13,  Sauveterre 
writes  that  Guy  Dickens  thinks  the  negotiation  relative 
to  the  marriage  could  easily  be  renewed.  After  the 
marriage,  he  speaks  (Dec.  18,  1731)  of  the  steps  taken, 
three  weeks  before  the  nuptials,  to  gain  the  Prince  of 
Wales.  "As  a  final  result,  however,  the  negotiations 
were  broken  because  the  King  of  England  persisted  in 
the  double  marriage."  The  Queen  continued  to  intrigue 
and  hope  to  the  very  last  moment. 

256.  See,  in  the  Memoirs  of  the  Margravine,  the  whole  year  of 

1731.  In  the  preceding  pages,  and  those  which  follow,  I 
have  sometimes  employed  the  expressions  used  in  the 
Memoirs. 

257.  See,  for  this  psychology  of  the  Margravine  given  by  her- 

self, pp.  262,  266,  267,  268,  269,  281,  282. 

258.  Letters  from  Hille  to  Grumbkow,  May  19,  26,  June  5, 1731; 

in  Forster,  III.,  pp.  44-5,  48-9. 

259.  Dispatches  of  Guy  Dickens,  Aug.  and  Nov.,  1731,  in  Rau- 

mer, pp.  561-3. 

260.  Dec.  8,  1731,  Works  of  Frederick  the  Great,  Vol.  XXVII, 

III.,  pp.  33-4. 

261.  Dec.  18  and  22, 1731;  Jan.  22  and  29,  1732.    Ibid.,  pp.  35, 

39,  49,  50,  51-2.    See,  besides,  all  his  correspondence. 

262.  See  note  261. 

263.  Dec.  25, 1731,  and  Jan.  17, 1732,  ibid.,  pp.  41,  45. 

264.  Hille  to  Grumbkow,  Apr.  28  and  June  5,  1731,  Forster,  pp. 

40-1,  49. 

265.  Koser,  Appendix,  pp.  266-67. 


NOTES.  443 

§66.  Hille  to  Grumbkow,  Apr.  28,  1731,  Forster,  pp.  40-1.  See, 
besides  Hille's  letters,  three  reports  of  Schulenburg, 
Forster,  III,  pp.  65  et  seq. 

267.  Jan.  19,  1732,  Works  of  Frederick  the  Great,  XXVII,  III, 

pp.  47-8. 

268.  Hille  to  Grumbkow,  Sept.  30,  1731,  Forster,  III,  p.  63. 

See,  in  reports  of  Schulenburg  cited  above,  notably  pp. 
55,  65,  69  and  72. 

269.  Works  of  Frederick  the  Great,  vol.  XVI,  pp.  15-17. 

270.  Koser,  p.  95. 

271.  Works  of  Frederick  the  Great,  vol.  XXVII,  III,  pp.  36-39. 

Plan  wegen  des  Commercii  nach  Schlesien. 

272.  Letter  of  the  Crown  Prince  to  Natzmer,  Feb.,  1731.    Works 

of  Frederick  the  Great,  vol.  XVI,  pp.  3-6. 

273.  Prince  Eugene  to  Seckendorff,  Forster,  III.,  p.  99. 

274.  Prince  Eugene  to  Seckendorff,  Dec.  12,  1730;  ibid ,  p.  16. 

275.  Hille  to  Grumbkow,  Dec.  18,  1730,  Koser,  p.  98. 

276.  Frederick's  project  in  the  letter  of  Hille  to  Grumbkow, 

April  11,  1731;  letter  of  Grumbkow  to  Hille,  April  14, 
1731;  letter  of  Seckendorff  to  Prince  Eugene,  April  17, 
and  response  of  Prince  Eugene,  May  12,  1731;  Forster, 
III.,  pp.  21-24,  26-28. 

277.  Letters  of  the  King  to  Wolden,  May  25,  1731;   from  Hille 

to  Grumbkow,  May  26;  from  Wolden  to  Grumbkow, 
June  2,  1731;  Forster,  III.,  pp.  45-8. 

278.  Seckendorff  to  Prince  Eugene,  June  19,  1731,  after  he  had 

received  from  Grumbkow  a  report  of  the  visit  he  had 
made  to  Ciistrin,  Forster,  III.,  p.  75. 

279.  Hille  to  Grumbkow,  Sept.  30, 1731,  Forster,  HI.,  p.  62,  and 

narration  of  Schulenburg  cited  above. 

280.  Two  letters  of  the  Prince  to  Grumbkow  in  the  beginning 

of  January,  1732,  Koser,  p.  99. 

281.  Prince  Eugene  to  Seckendorff,  Jan.  29,  1732,  Forster,  III., 

pp.  76-7. 

282.  Seep.  373. 

283.  Works  of  Frederick  the  Great,  vol.  XXVII.,  III.,  pp.  53-4. 

284.  The  letters  written  by  Frederick  to  the  King  and  Queen 

(after  the  letter  of  the  King  of  Feb.  4,  1732)  are  lost.  We 
have  the  Queen's  answer  to  her  son.  She  congratulates 
him  with  doubtful  sincerity,  upon  his  submission  to  his 
father,  which  "  in  this  instance  is  glorious."  Works  of 
Frederick  the  Great,  vol.  XXVI.,  p.  65.  Letters  of  the 
Prince  to  Grumbkow,  Jan.  9,  1732,  in  Koser,  p.  100,  and 
of  Feb.  11, 1732,  Works  of  Frederick  the  Great,  vol.  XVI., 
pp.  36-39.       ' 


444  NOTES. 

285.  Seckendorff    to    Prince    Eugene,    Feb.    1732   (Relation 

ilber  den  Briefwechsel  des  Kron-prinzen  mit  Grumb- 
kow), Forster,  III,  pp.  157-160.  Grumbkow  to  the 
Crown  Prince,  Feb.  20,  1731.  Works  of  Frederick  the 
Great,  vol.  XVI,  pp.  43-4. 

286.  Letter  quoted  above  from  Grumbkow,  Feb.  20,  1732. 

287.  Feb.  19,  1732,  Works  of  Frederick  the  Great,  vol.  XVI.  pp. 

41-2. 

288.  Feb.  22,  1732,  Works  of  Frederick  the   Great,   vol.   XVI, 

pp.  43-8. 

289.  Grumbkow  to  Seckendorff,    Feb.   23,  1732,   Koser,  p.  108; 

Seckendorff  to  Prince  Eugene,  March  14,  Forster,  III, 
83;  the  Prince  to  the  Margravine,  March  6,  24,  Works 
of  Frederick  the  Great,  pp.  4-5. 

290.  Seckendorf  to  Prince  Eugene,  Feb.  23,  1732,  Forster,  III, 

78-83. 

291.  Prince  Eugene  to  Seckendorff,  March  9,  15,  23,  26,  April 

16,  30,  Forster,  III,  84,  86.  90,  98,  105. 

292.  Seckendorff  to  Prince  Eugene,  March  29,  April  1,  5,  8,  28, 

1732,  Forster,  III,  pp.  91,  93,  94,  96,  105. 

293.  Grumbkow  to  Seckendorff,  May  17,  Aug.  17,  1732,  Forster, 

III,  108, 110 

294.  Memoirs  of  the  Margravine,  pp.  375-6 

295.  Grumbkow  to  Seckendorff,  May  17,  Aug.  20,  Oct.  4  and  7, 

1732,  Forster,  III,  108,  111,  115,  116;  Seckendorff  to 
Prince  Eugene,  Apr.  5,  8, 28, 1732,  Forster,  III,  94,  96, 105. 

296.  Seckendorff  to  the  Prince,  April  6,  1732,  and    response 

(not  dated)  of  the  Prince,  Works  of  Frederick  the  Great, 
vol.  XVI,  pp.  27-8;  Seckendorff  to  Prince  Eugene,  April 
28  and  Sept.  18,  1732,  Forster,  III,  105, 113. 

297.  The  Prince  to  Grumbkow,  Sept.  4  and  29, 1732,  Works  of 

Frederick  the  Great,  vol.  XVI.,  pp.  56-8,  64. 

298.  Seckendorff  to  Prince  Eugene,  Sept.  18, 1732,  Forster,  III., 

112. 

299.  Koser,  pp.  168  et  seq. 

300.  Seckendorff  to    Prince    Eugene,    April    8,   1732;    Prince 

Eugene  to  Seckendorff,  April  16,  30,  1732;  Forster,  III., 
pp.  96,  98,  105. 

301.  Seckendorff  to  Prince  Eugene,  Nov.  4,  1732 ;  Grumbkow 

to  Seckendorff,  Nov.  4,  and  report  of  Grumbkow,  Nov. 
8-24,  Forster,  III.,  pp.  116,  128. 

302.  Seckendorff  to  Prince  Eugene,  Nov.  26,  1732,  Forster,  III., 

p.  118. 


NOTES.  445 

303.  Letter  of  the  Prince  of  Bevern  to  the  King,  Nov.  22, 1732, 

in  French,  quoted  in  a  letter  from  Seckendorff  to 
Prince  Eugene,  of  Nov.  30,  1732,  and  the  King's  answer 
to  the  Prince  of  Bevern,  in  French,  attached  to  a  letter 
from  Seckendorff  to  Prince  Eugene,  Dec.  17, 1732,  Forster, 
III.,  pp.  120, 140-1. 

304.  An   account  of  the   tabagie  of  the  6th  of  Dec.  1732,  by 

Grumbkow ;  Seckendorff  to  Prince  Eugene,  Dec.  6,  9, 
13,  16,  20,  22,  27, 1732,  and  Prince  Eugene  to  Seckendorff, 
Dec.  6  and  17,  1732,  Forster,  pp.  135, 137, 138, 139, 141^, 
142,  144,  145. 

305.  The  Prince,  who  found  this  expression  very  good,  repeated 

it  to  Grumbkow,  Dec.  14, 1732.  {Works  of  Frederick 
the  Great,  vol.  XVI.,  p.  74.) 

306.  The  Prince  to  Seckendorff,  Dec.  26,  1732,  Works  of  Fred- 

erick the  Great,  vol.  XVI,  pp.  30-1.— See  the  letter  of  the 
Crown  Prince  to  Grumbkow,  of  Oct.  19,  1732.  "If  I 
knew   how   to   make    gold,   I   would  communicate  my 

science,  first  of  all,  to  my  poor  sister  of  Baireuth I 

wish  with  all  my  heart  that  her  father-in-law  would  step 
off.  He  would  be  easily  enough  consoled,  I  think,  if  he 
had  the  assurance  that  they  distilled  whisky  in  heaven." 
Ibid.,  pp.  67-8. 

307.  Seckendorff  to  Prince  Eugene,  Feb.  28,  and  April  11,  1733, 

Forster,  III.,  146,  148;  Seckendorff  to  the  Crown  Prince, 
April  1733,  Works  of  Frederick  the  Great,  vol.  XVI.,  p. 
33. 

308.  The  Prince  to  Grumbkow,  Jan.  25  and  27,  1733,  Works  of 

Frederick  the  Great,  vol.  XVI,  pp.  77,  79. 

309.  Report  of  Seckendorff  to  Prince  Eugene,  June  13,  1733, 

Forster  pp.  148-155. 

310.  The  Prince  to  the  Margravine,  June  12,  1733,  "at  twelve 

o'clock,"  Works  of  Frederick  the  Great,  vol.  XXVII, 
(1st  part),  p.  9. 

311.  Memoirs  of  the  Margravine,  p.  401. 

312.  Letter  in  French  to  Grumbkow,  Forster,  III,  pp.  175-6. 

313.  Secret   accounts  of   Seckendorff;   letter  of    the  same  to^ 

Prince  Eugene,  Oct.  4,  1733;  letter  of  Prince  Eugene 
upon  Reichenbach,  July  4,  1731,  Forster,  III,  pp.  231-34. 


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